UK charity tax relief statistics commentary
Updated 31 July 2024
© Crown copyright 2024
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: [email protected].
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-charity-tax-relief-statistics/uk-charity-tax-relief-statistics-commentary
Summary
For the tax year to April 2024, tax reliefs for charities and their donors, where an estimate is available, were just over £6.0 billion, up 3% year-on-year.
Estimates for some of the largest tax reliefs are:
- £2.56 billion relief of non-domestic rates (business rates, up 6% on the previous tax year)
- £1.6 billion in Gift Aid paid to charities at the basic rate of Income Tax (no change from the previous tax year)
- £750 million Inheritance Tax reliefs for donations (no change from the previous tax year)
- £690 million Higher Rate Relief - relief at higher rates of tax on individuals’ Gift Aided donations (up 1% on the previous tax year)
Although Gift Aid payments appeared steady at £1.6 billion in the year ending April 2024, there is a small underlying upward trend. The difference between the payments and the underlying trend is that a small proportion of payments were slightly delayed from early 2022, causing the level of payments in the year ending April 2023 to be a little higher than we would otherwise expect.
Slightly more than half of the value of Gift Aid payments went to charities that received less than £1 million each, a little more than the previous year. For more information about Gift Aid, see the section on Table 2 below.
More than 1.3 million people declared a donation on their Self Assessment return for tax year ending April 2023, about 1% more than the previous year. They declared just under £4 billion in donations of all types, which is 3% less than the previous year. For more information about donations declared via Self Assessment, see the section on Tables 3, 4 and 5 below.
About this release
Frequency: Annual
Coverage: UK
Theme: Economy
Next release: We expect to publish an update in Summer 2025.
This statistics release is the annual update of reliefs for charities and their donors. Tables 1, 2 and 6 are now Accredited official statistics - this is the new name for National Statistics. Tables 3 to 5 are Official Statistics - this has not changed. There are no other major changes to the way we publish these statistics since the previous update.
Table 1: Summary of UK tax reliefs for charities and donors
For the tax year to April 2024, tax reliefs for charities and their donors, where an annual estimate is available, were just over £6.0 billion, up 3% year-on-year.
This is comprised of:
- £4.46 billion of reliefs for charities, up 3%
- £1.57 billion of reliefs for donors, up 1% year-on-year
Gift Aid
Charities may claim the basic rate of Income Tax on qualifying donations by individuals.
In the tax year to April 2024, HMRC paid charities £1.6 billion in Gift Aid, about the same as the previous year.
Although Gift Aid payments appeared steady, there is a small underlying upward trend. The difference between the payments and the underlying trend is that a small proportion of payments were slightly delayed from early 2022, causing the level of payments in the year ending April 2023 to be a little higher than we would otherwise expect.
We explore Gift Aid more in the section for Table 2 (below), which breaks down Gift Aid by value of payments per organisation.
Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme
The Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme is related to the main Gift Aid scheme but is much smaller and separate. This scheme permits charities to claim the equivalent of basic rate Income Tax for some smaller donations when the donation is made by someone who is physically present. This is technically government expenditure rather than a tax relief, but we show it in Table 1 for completeness.
Payments under this scheme were £30 million in tax year ending April 2024, level with the previous year.
Non-domestic rates relief
Also known as ‘business rates relief’, this allows charities an 80% reduction in the corresponding business rate; some authorities top this up by a further 20% resulting in complete exemption.
This relief is fairly stable in recent years and continues to be the largest single source of tax relief granted directly to charities. In tax year ending April 2024 it is forecast to be £2.56 billion, 6% higher than with the previous year.
Stamp Duty Land Tax
This tax is payable when buying or leasing land or property, and is relieved for charities, who do not have to pay it when buying a property. The cost of this relief may vary with changes in the tax regime and property prices as well as other factors.
Stamp Duty Land Tax is collected in England and Northern Ireland. Before April 2018 and April 2015, property transactions in Wales and Scotland respectively were included, but these taxes have now been devolved and replaced with separate land and buildings transaction taxes, and no longer appear here after those dates.
Relief of Stamp Duty Land Tax for charities was down 9% to £300 million in the year to April 2024.
The figures for the most recent tax years is provisional: we will update this data in the next release of these statistics.
Chart 1a: summary of the above reliefs for charities, £ millions, by tax year ending
| Tax Year ending | Gift Aid, £m | Interest, royalties, trust donations, £m | Non-domestic rates relief, £m | Stamp Duty Land Tax, £m | Total reliefs for charities, £m |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 1,350 | 10 | 2,300 | 360 | total £4,020m |
| 2020 | 1,400 | 10 | 2,390 | 420 | total £4,220m |
| 2021 | 1,380 | 10 | 2,390 | 210 | total £3,990m |
| 2022 | 1,340 | less than 10 | 2,400 | 310 | total £4,060m |
| 2023 | 1,600 | 10 | 2,410 | 330 | total £4,340m |
| 2024 | 1,600 | 10 | 2,560 | 300 | total £4,460m |
Inheritance Tax (IHT)
This is a wealth transfer tax.
For tax year ending April 2024, Inheritance Tax relief for charitable donations was estimated to be £750 million, about the same as the previous year.
There is always some uncertainty in this relief for the most recent tax years due to the relatively small number of relatively large taxpayers, and the longer time between liability arising and information becoming available to HMRC. We will update this column in the next release of these statistics.
Higher rates of tax on Gift Aid
Sometimes called ‘higher rate relief’, this allows individual donors to reclaim tax at a rate equal to the difference between their marginal rate and the basic rate on donations where Gift Aid has already been claimed by a charity. This is explained in more detail in HMRC’s Gift Aid guidance.
For tax year ending April 2024, we will not know the value of donations taxpayers will declare until Self Assessment returns for that year become due in 2025, so we have forecast this figure for the latest complete tax year as usual. Our provisional forecast of higher rate relief is £690 million, an increase of 1% year-on-year. We expect that the value of donations rises consistently with an increase in the underlying amounts charities claim via Gift Aid.
Chart 1b: summary of the above reliefs for donors, £ millions, by tax year ending
| Tax Year ending | Inheritance Tax, £m | Payroll Giving, £m | Gifts of Shares & Property, £m | Higher rates of tax on Gift Aid, £m | Total reliefs for donors, £m |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 640 | 40 | 80 | 560 | total £1,310m |
| 2020 | 670 | 40 | 130 | 540 | total £1,370m |
| 2021 | 680 | 40 | 90 | 550 | total £1,360m |
| 2022 | 670 | 40 | 110 | 660 | total £1,470m |
| 2023 | 750 | 40 | 90 | 680 | total £1,550m |
| 2024 | 750 | 40 | 100 | 690 | total £1,570m |
Reliefs for charities and donors which are not in these statistics
Annual estimates for Corporation Tax, Income Tax, Stamp Duty Reserve Tax and VAT reliefs for charities are not available. Charities are in most cases not required to inform HMRC when they use these reliefs, and the cost of collection for statistical purposes is disproportionate.
A one-off estimate for the cost of relief on corporate donations was estimated in Non-structural tax reliefs for the tax year ending April 2022, which was for £880 million.
Table 2: Gift Aid payments to charities
In the year to April 2024, HMRC paid charities and community amateur sports clubs £1.6 billion in Gift Aid, about the same as the previous year.
Chart 2a: Value of Gift Aid paid to organisations, £ millions, by annual amount to each organisation
| Tax year (ending April) | up to £1,000 / organisation | £1,001 to £5,000 | £5,001 to £10,000 | £10,001 to £50,000 | £50,001 to £100,000 | £100,001 to £1m | Over £1m | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 10 | 60 | 60 | 200 | 90 | 320 | 620 | total £1,350m |
| 2020 | 10 | 60 | 60 | 200 | 90 | 320 | 670 | total £1,400m |
| 2021 | 10 | 60 | 60 | 200 | 90 | 300 | 670 | total £1,380m |
| 2022 | 10 | 50 | 60 | 200 | 90 | 330 | 610 | total £1,340m |
| 2023 | 10 | 50 | 50 | 210 | 90 | 350 | 840 | total £1,600m |
| 2024 | 10 | 50 | 60 | 220 | 100 | 370 | 790 | total £1,600m |
Although Gift Aid payments appeared steady, there is a small underlying upward trend. The difference between the payments and the underlying trend is that a small proportion of payments were slightly delayed from early 2022, causing the level of payments in the year ending April 2023 to be a little higher than we would otherwise expect.
After four years of gentle decline in the total number of organisations benefiting from Gift Aid, there was a slight recovery in the most recent year, when the number of charities receiving Gift Aid rose 3% to over 66,000.
Chart 2b: Number of organisations receiving Gift Aid paid to charities, by annual amount to each organisation
| Tax Year (ending April) | up to £1,000 per organisation | £1,001 to £5,000 | £5,001 to £10,000 | £10,001 to £50,000 | £50,001 to £100,000 | £100,001 to £1m | Over £1m | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 28,990 | 23,820 | 7,980 | 9,770 | 1,260 | 1,230 | 150 | total 73,210 |
| 2020 | 27,900 | 23,270 | 8,140 | 9,700 | 1,250 | 1,220 | 160 | total 71,640 |
| 2021 | 26,590 | 22,970 | 7,990 | 9,610 | 1,270 | 1,200 | 160 | total 69,780 |
| 2022 | 24,750 | 20,640 | 7,710 | 9,670 | 1,270 | 1,280 | 150 | total 65,470 |
| 2023 | 23,110 | 20,740 | 7,620 | 9,800 | 1,330 | 1,370 | 190 | total 64,170 |
| 2024 | 23,250 | 21,870 | 7,790 | 10,320 | 1,420 | 1,470 | 190 | total 66,310 |
Tables 3, 4 and 5: Donations declared by individuals completing Self Assessment
At the time of release, Self Assessment data is available up to the tax year ending in April 2023.
Chart 3a: Number of people declaring a donation by Self Assessment
| Tax Year ending | Number of donors |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 1.27 million donors |
| 2020 | 1.28 million donors |
| 2021 | 1.25 million donors |
| 2022 | 1.29 million donors |
| 2023 | 1.30 million donors |
The number of individuals declaring a donation via Self Assessment increased by 1% to 1.30 million donors.
Chart 3b: Value of donations declared via Self Assessment
| Tax Year ending | Gift Aided Donations | Shares / Property donations | Total value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | £2.9 billion | £0.4 billion | total £3.3 bn |
| 2020 | £3.0 billion | £0.7 billion | total £3.7 bn |
| 2021 | £3.0 billion | £0.5 billion | total £3.5 bn |
| 2022 | £3.5 billion | £0.6 billion | total £4.1 bn |
| 2023 | £3.5 billion | £0.5 billion | total £3.9 bn |
The total value of donations reduced by 3% to £3.9 billion. This was driven by a reduction in the total value of donations of shares and property.
In these tables, we define a ‘donor’ as any individual who entered a donation in the relevant section of a Self Assessment form. That is, either in the form of Gift Aided cash donations or in the form of qualifying assets gifted to charity. It does not include donors who do not submit a Self Assessment return, who typically pay no Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax or the basic rate of Income Tax. The data in the most recent years is provisional because very late returns and amendments might still be made, especially to the most recent published tax year.
Calculations of donations as a proportion of income exclude individuals with nil income or where the ratio of donation to income was over 100%.
Tables 4 and 5 group this data by several characteristics of Self Assessment taxpayers.
Donations by gross income
Likelihood to donate increases with income. 7% of Self Assessment taxpayers with income under £50,000 declared a donation compared to 37% of those with income over £250,000.
However, donors earning under £50,000 donated the largest proportion of their gross income compared with higher earners, 3.3% of their income on average.
Donations by age
Likelihood to donate increases with age. 21% of Self Assessment taxpayers over 65 year old or more declared a donation.
Donors who were aged 65 and up donated the largest proportion of their gross income compared to younger donors, 3.8% of their income on average.
Donations by gender
Women Self Assessment taxpayers are a little more likely to declare a donation than men: 13% of women compared to 11% of men.
Donations by UK nation, region and Parliamentary constituency
Table 5 provides geographical information and breaks down the total number of individuals declaring a donation via Self Assessment and the total value of those donations by region and Parliamentary constituency.
Self Assessment taxpayers in South East England were the most likely to donate: 15% of these declared a donation.
Donors in Northern Ireland donated the highest proportion of their income, 4.0% for the average Northern Ireland donor compared to 2.5% across the UK.
Table 6: Payroll Giving scheme
An employer wishing to set up a Payroll Giving scheme contracts with an agency approved by HMRC. Employees wishing to take part authorise the employer to deduct amounts from their pay and nominate the charities to which their gifts should go. Donations are deducted before tax which reduces the effective tax rate that the employee pays. Payroll Giving donations are not eligible for Gift Aid. The gross amount donated and the number of participating employees are estimated from information provided by Payroll Giving agencies.
This table has been updated to include the tax year ending April 2023. Data for donations in the following tax year is not expected to be available until the next release of these statistics, but we have, as usual, forecast the value of Payroll Giving relief to taxpayers for the most recent tax year, ending April 2024, which is steady at around £40 million. This is shown in the column for Payroll Giving in Table 1.
Experimentally, here is a copy of Table 6 directly on this page. We welcome your comments and questions about displaying data in this format (or any aspect of these statistics) at [email protected].
| Tax year ending April | Gross amount donated £ millions | Cost of Income Tax relief £ millions | Thousands of employees participating, previous basis | Thousands of employees participating, current basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 126 | 40 | 1,094 | not available |
| 2016 | 131 | 40 | 1,113 | not available |
| 2017 | 131 | 40 | 1,070 | not available |
| 2018 | 137 | 40 | 1,034 | not available |
| 2019 | 133 | 40 | 1,086 | not available |
| 2020 | 132 | 40 | not available | 591 |
| 2021 | 137 | 40 | not available | 545 |
| 2022 | 128 | 40 | not available | 516 |
| 2023 | 127 | 40 | not available | 483 |
In April 2019, agency changes to their definition of the number of participating employees removed a group of employees who participated by donating in a previous tax year, but not in the tax year being reported on. This resulted in a large apparent drop in the number of employees. However, this does not reflect a real change in the number of employees donating. We cannot back date previous years with the change in definition, so we show the number of donors from before that date in a separate data series.
Tables of data
This document is a summary of and commentary on our statistics. View the full tables in this release.
Related publications
Whilst we cannot comment on the accuracy of external statistics, these resources offer complementary coverage on UK charities.
- the section on charitable giving in DCMS’s Community Life Survey
- the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF)’s UK Giving report
- an overview of Charity Commission for England and Wales statistics
- data and research by OSCR, the Scottish Charity Regulator
- data from the Northern Ireland Charity Commission
Contact us
We welcome your comments on this commentary and other aspects of these statistics at [email protected].
Media contact: [email protected]