The Mary Wood Trust

Tax Efficient Giving

​

• If you pay UK tax (Income or Capital Gains Tax) and would like us to be able to claim back the basic rate tax through the government’s Gift Aid scheme, you will need to fill in, sign and return to us an ongoing Gift Aid declaration if you have not done so already. The benefit to the Mary Wood Trust is that we can recover the basic rate of income tax, currently 25p for each pound given at no extra cost to you. (If you pay higher rate tax, you may recover this through your own tax return.)

• Higher rate UK tax payers and payroll giving: if you pay higher or additional rate tax, you may recover this through your own tax return, alternatively, you may pass on this extra tax to the Mary Wood Trust by giving via your employer’s payroll giving scheme (Payroll Giving).

  • If you are a UK higher rate (40%) or additional rate (45%) income tax payer and you give to the Mary Wood Trust directly and allow us to reclaim the basic rate tax through Gift Aid then you may recover, through your tax return, the difference between the basic rate tax that the Mary Wood Trust recovers and higher or additional rate that you have paid. Alternatively, if you give via Payroll Giving then, because you are giving “pre-tax”, you are able to pass on the full benefit of your tax to the Mary Wood Trust immediately; so if you are a higher rate taxpayer the Mary Wood Trust will receive 42p more per £1 of donation and for additional rate taxpayers, the Mary Wood Trust will receive 57p more per £1 of donation than if you give through Gift Aid. Because these donations are made “pre-tax”, the Mary Wood Trust does not have to reclaim the tax that you pay via Gift Aid, this means that you have to build in the “tax-back” element to your donation.

  • For example, if you are a higher rate taxpayer and currently give the Mary Wood Trust £300 a month, the Mary Wood Trust is able to claim £75 of your tax back via Gift Aid. If you donate £500 via Payroll Giving you will receive £300 less pay each month, meaning your £500 donation will cost you the same as your current giving, but the Mary Wood Trust will receive £125 more. The same result can be achieved by you filling in a self assessment tax return and re-claiming the difference between the tax recovered via Gift Aid and the tax that you have actually paid but requires you to actually fill in a tax return and takes longer for the gift to be received.