Does ExpensePlus support donations from couples?

Yes, you can record donations from couples in ExpensePlus.

A single donation received via standing order may represent the giving of a couple or a household. For example, John and Jane Bloggs may give a total of £200 a month to your church or charity as a single payment. 

You can match this £200 income transaction as a Named Donation with the donor name including both people in the couple.

You can manage your donor names in the Manage Donors screen.

Top tip: By matching this Donor Name to your standing order reference and choosing 'remember transaction', all future transactions will be quick matched to the 'couple'.

Claiming Gift Aid on donations from couples

You can add a Gift Aid declaration to this 'couple'. However, the declaration needs to be in the name of just one individual.

Often, one person in the couple will pay enough tax to enable Gift Aid to be claimed on the full donation amount.

For example, if the monthly donation is £200 per month, then as long as one of the individuals pays £50 tax, there is no need to split the donation and you can claim Gift Aid via one person.

Note: Gift Aid declarations are always in the name of a unique individual and cannot cover a household or couple. This is an HMRC requirement.

Splitting donations from couples for Gift Aid

If one person in the couple does not pay enough tax to cover Gift Aid being claimed on the whole donation, or for another reason, the couple might ask you to split their donation.

If you do need to split the incoming donation between the two people in the couple, you should set up each person as a separate Named Donor, with their own gift aid declarations as appropriate.

Each time you do bank reconciliation, record the transaction (representing two donations) as Mixed Income and record both named donations with the split the couple has requested.

To do this:

  • select the bank transaction on the left hand table of the match transactions screen
  • click the + button that appears next to the transaction
  • in the popup select the 'mixed income' option.

These donations will then appear as separate donations in your donation reports and you can claim Gift Aid on these separately.

Note: Mixed income transactions can't be quick matched so you will need to manually reconcile this donation each time you do bank reconciliation.

Note: you may need to delete the Memorised Transaction relating to the Standing Order if you are moving from allocating the donation from one Named Donor to two.

Top tip - alternatives to splitting the donation each time

Using the mixed income option each time you receive a donation is more time-consuming than quick-matching the income. Here are some alternative options:

  • Ask the couple to send two different bank transfers (which you can then quick-match each month)
  • Ask the couple whether one giver in fact pays enough income tax that you can class the whole donation in their name (so you can reconcile the whole donation to a single giver, and quick-match it each month)

To better understand the Gift Aid module, please view the module overview video here.

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