Dc5 and charities online
- 1. DONATIONS CO-ORDINATOR 5 AND HMRC “CHARITIES ONLINE” CLAIMING
- 2. 2 | P a g e INTRODUCTION TO ONLINE CLAIMING From April 2013 the HMRC have introduced a brand new claims process for Gift Aid and the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme including three new means of making claims, all under the name “Charities Online”. If you are not familiar with Charities Online you should stop at this point and read the overview on the HMRC website at: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/online/ Donations Co-ordinator 5 will allow you to make direct claims through the Charities Online system and also to produce spread-sheets which can be uploaded to the HMRC website if you choose to use their online form as a method of filing a claim. The current version of Donations Co-ordinator 5 also includes the ability to produce the old R68(i) forms, although these become obsolete and will no longer be accepted beyond September 2013 and so the program is designed to prevent you from trying to place claims using this old form after that date. The Charities Online claims process requires different and, in some areas, more information than the old R68(i) form and so whether you are brand new to Donations Co-ordinator or whether you have just upgraded from a previous version there will be some new data you need to enter before you are ready to submit your first claim… ENROLLING FOR CHARITIES ONLINE Before you will be able to make claims through the new Charities Online services you will need to sign up for HMRC online services and then enrol for Charities Online. If your charity has never used the HMRCs online services previously you will need to create an online account. To do this: 1. Go to the HMRC Online Services website (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/online/) 2. Click on the 'Register - new users' option in the ‘Do it online’ section on the right-hand-side of the screen. 3. Click on the ‘Sign up for HMRC online services’ link. 4. And then click on ‘Organisation’
- 3. 3 | P a g e 5. Tick the ‘Charities’ checkbox, then click the ‘Next’ button 6. You're now ready to enrol for the Charities Online service If your charity already has an HMRC online services account, for example filing self-assessment, Corporation Tax or VAT returns then all you will need to do is enrol for the Charities Online service and it will be added to your existing account. You will then be able to enter your existing Username and Password into Donations Co-ordinator 5 in order to establish the link with the HMRC. To enrol with Charities online: 1. Go to the HMRC Online Services website (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/online/) and enter your User ID and Password in the ‘Registered users’ section and click on the ‘Login’ button. 2. On the ‘Your HMRC Services’ page follow the ‘Enrol for online services’ link in the ‘Services you can add’ section. 3. On the ‘Services you can add’ page, follow the Charities ‘Enrol for service’ link and you’re ready to enrol for the Charities Online Service. To complete the enrolment process you will need your: HMRC Charities Reference Number – This will start with either one or two letters and will include up to five numbers. Postcode Plus either – The last four digits of your organisation’s bank account number (for charities that were registered by HMRC before April 2013) Or Your Customer Account Reference Number (for charities that were registered by HMRC after April 2013. This is a 10-digit number shown on the letter sent to you by HMRC when your charity application has been accepted) Step 1 - Terms & Conditions - Click the checkbox to confirm that you have read and agree to the Terms and Conditions Step 2 - About you - Enter your full name and your email address twice to confirm that it is correct.
- 4. 4 | P a g e Step 3 - Create a password Step 4 - Note User ID – When you reach this step your User ID will be displayed on-screen. You will need to make a note of this and keep it safe as it will not be displayed again and you will need it every time you log in to use the HMRCs Online Services. Step 5 - Enter the details about your organisation Step 6 - Activation Code - If your enrolment is successful you will receive your Activation Code in the post in an envelope marked ‘Government Gateway’. You will need this to activate the Charities Online service. Please note: Your activation code can take up to a week to arrive and is only valid for 28 days. If you don’t use the code within those 28 days you will need to log back in with your User ID and Password and re-enrol for Charities Online and another activation code will be sent to you. Step 7 - Next time you wish to login to the HMRCs Online Services you will need to enter your User ID and Password in the ‘Existing Users’ section. Please note the information detailed above is correct at the time of printing. If you require any further assistance with registering to use the new Charities online system you can find guidance on the HMRC’s website at; http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/online/charities-online.pdf or you can telephone the HMRC directly on 0845 302 0203. When you have completed the enrolment process you should have a User ID which will be assigned to you and a password which you will be able to choose yourself. These will need to be recorded in Donations Co-ordinator if you wish to use the program for making direct claims. PRE-REQUISITE DATA Before you can send a Charities Online claim there are a number of extra bits of information which you will need to enter into Donations Co-ordinator as follows:
- 5. 5 | P a g e ORGANISATION DETAILS Four of the five tabs on the Organisation Details screen have information pertinent to Charities Online: • Please press the Edit Name button and ensure the name of the signatory has been entered correctly. Note that titles of over four characters will be rejected. • You must enter your HMRC reference number • Note that the postcode of the correspondence address now has its own field. This must be completed or the “Address is overseas” box ticked. • A phone number must be entered for the Authorised Official. • If you enter an email address, this will be used by HMRC for a confirmation that your claim has been received, if not they will use the email address which they have on file for your organisation. (Note, at the time or writing there was a suggestion that HMRC may discontinue these confirmation emails at some point in the future.) • On the second page you will need to enter your Charities Online Sender ID (User ID) and password, as described above. • You should also record whether you are eligible to claim GASDS1 and, if so, on what basis 1 See http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/gasds/eligible.htm
- 6. 6 | P a g e you are claiming it. If you are claiming as a Community Building2 you must enter the name, address and postcode of the building itself here too. • On the third page you can see and edit how much GASDS you are entitled to claim in each tax year. A new line will appear automatically at the start of each new tax year. • Normally your entitlement will be £5,000 but you may want to reduce this if: o You are sharing a GASDS allocation with other charities with which you are connected3 . o You make a claim for GASDS from outside Donations Co-ordinator. o You are concerned that you may not claim enough Gift Aid in a given tax year to qualify you to claim the full allocation of GASDS under the “matching rule”4 . Note that Donations Co-ordinator will not prevent you from over-claiming on this basis. • On the fourth page you must complete the section about Charity Regulator registration. If you are registered with or regulated by a Charity Regulator you must select the appropriate option and enter the number they have given you. 2 See http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/gasds/community-buildings.htm 3 See http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/gasds/connected-charities.htm 4 See http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/gasds/working-out.htm
- 7. 7 | P a g e • Please note that the Charities Online system will not accept your claim if you name a Charity Regulator but do not enter a number. If you do not have a number you will have to select “None” for the Regulator option. DONORS For each donor you must enter the forename or initial, surname, address and postcode. The required address is a minimum of a house number or name and a valid UK postcode. If there is not a UK postcode then you must include the name of the town as well. If the address is outside the UK then you must include the name of the country. All this in forty characters or less! Fortunately, DC does most of the work for you. There is a field on the left for “Address for HMRC”. This is automatically generated for you from the address entered. Should you need to over-ride it you can click the Edit Address button, tick the check-box and do so but nine times out of ten this should be unnecessary. CONNECTED CHARITIES • If your organisation has “connected charities” for GASDS purposes then these need to be entered through the Connected Charities screen on the Master Tables menu. Normally this will mean that you are not eligible to claim the full £5,000 GASDS allocation unless you are claiming as a Community Building. • Our understanding from HMRC is that it is not necessary to complete this information if you are only claiming as a Community Building.
- 8. 8 | P a g e MAKING A CLAIM Creating a Charities Online claim works in a very similar way to creating an R68(i) claim in Donations Co-ordinator 4. From either the Claims menu or the Claims tab on the Startup form click Make a Claim and then choose the option to Submit a Claim to HMRC: • On the top half of the screen you can choose a date to claim up to and which purposes you wish to claim for. • “Adjustments” allow you to deduct amounts which have been over-claimed previously from a subsequent claim to correct the error – it is no longer necessary to send a cheque back to HMRC. Note the “Find Tax Refunds” button: if you record Tax Refunds in the normal way these can be called up to create your adjustment figure for the Gift Aid side. This will be extended to include GASDS refunds in a future update. • If you enter an adjustment you must enter an explanation in the “Other Information” box. If you create an adjustment from Tax Refunds this text will be entered for you although you can over-ride our default.
- 9. 9 | P a g e • File an Electronic Claim with HMRC. This will connect to the HMRC server using your internet connection and send your claim to them directly. o If the submission cannot be sent or if it fails for any reason you will be shown a list of any errors which have been returned by the HMRC system. • Produce Spread-Sheets using Microsoft Excel. This will produce the Gift Aid and GASDS spread-sheets in the directory you specify to be uploaded to the HMRC website if you choose the online form to file your Charities Online claim. This option requires Microsoft Excel 2010 or later to be installed on your system to work. • Produce Spread-Sheets using LibreOffice Calc. This will produce the same spread-sheets but using the LibreOffice 4 program, which must be installed on your system for the option to work. This is available as a free download5 . MONITORING CLAIMS Claims which are sent by the electronic means pass through three stages before they are fully “received” by HMRC. There is a status screen which allows you to monitor and update these statuses – Track Live Claims on the Claims menu. • If an error message has been returned you can view or print this at any time by selecting the relevant claim and pressing the Error Log button. • HMRC recommend that you store two “XML” files as part of your audit record for each claim. Donations Co-ordinator does this for you within the database automatically. Should you need to view or print these files 5 Download LibreOffice for free from http://www.libreoffice.org/
- 10. 10 | P a g e for a particular claim you can save them as separate files by pressing the Export XML Files button. • Sometimes a claim will be sent to HMRC but we will not receive the two stages of confirmation immediately. You will know that this is the case if all three lights are not showing green. Simply press “Check Progress” and Donations Co-ordinator will re-connect to the Charities Online service and request a status update on your claim. HELP As well as our comprehensive manual and help file (both available from the Help menu) you will find on-screen help in two places: • Many screens now have an Information Pane down the left-hand side which brings together information and instructions about the use of the screen. • “Help Measles” have been added to various parts of the system, especially those relating to the new features of Gift Aid and GASDS. These look like this and can be clicked on for more information. In some cases the information shown changes according to the data you have entered.
- 11. 11 | P a g e Data Developments Wolverhampton Science Park Stafford Road Wolverhampton WV10 9RU www.datadevelopments.co.uk Sales: (01902) 824044 Support: (01902) 824045