To be annoyed the charity shop called me rude

Yes she shouldn't have been rude of course but wouldn't it have been simpler to just say I'm not a tax payer when she asked about gift aid?

Our local hospice closed all their retail shops during lockdown and opened up a shop on the side of a warehouse on a trading estate.

It means that customers and people who donate can park right outside. The staff are lovely and helpful and are always delighted to receive donations.

The charity I volunteer with has raised thousands of pounds for the hospice, and when they came to give a talk at one of our meetings I was amazed at just how much money they raise from selling goods at their retail hub. They accept clothes, household items, furniture and electrical goods, which they have PAT tested before they go on sale.

Donating to them is stress free and easy.

No it isn't. It's like asking would you like the tax you paid on your fries to be rediverted to us (and by the way you can only do this if you pay tax). People need to stop thinking of Gift Aid as free money.

This.

I think some people thing it's somehow 'free'money.

Yanbu. She was rude. I'm self employed and my tax is complicated enough without doing gift aid as well. I refuse to do gift aid. I find it rude to be asked. Even if I didn't have to do my tax return is still refuse to do gift aid as you giving the government too much information. Just my opinion before anyone jumps on me. My mum s friend has to pay as she hadn't paid enough tax during the year to cover her donations.

They're not all technically volunteers, near us some of them are staffed by offenders who are doing community service as part of their sentence.

Because she doesn't pay tax and she couldn't have gift aided anyway. So what's the point?

If he's the one that pays tax, they she has no right dealing with Gift Aid on his behalf. If my husband made decisions about GA for me I'd be furious. I don't do Gift Aid.

She was rude. You don't owe anyone gift aid or your details, definitely not your husband's. Your explanation as to why shouldn't matter or deserve comment unless you were swearing /actually rude.

Yes, this. I find it odd that everyone automatically seems to think Gift Aid is a no-brainer.

We don't do gift aid either. It's a rediversion of tax, not money magically appeatinf from nowhere. I don't think it's odd. The OP doesn't pay tax and didn't feel comfortable making this decision on behalf of her husband (quite rightly). The charity shop worker was veey my rude, yes. However, as a PP has pointed out, possibly severely SEN so don't let it get to you.

I would have said that I don't pay tax. I may even have added something mysterious, such as 'in the UK'.

@Razorrain the details of retail gift aid from MarieCurie posted by @HotCrossBunplease is a bit disingenuous and only tells half the story.

If you sogn up for retail gift aid the smallprint says that the items remain your property until sold and that the charity shop is selling them on your behalf and will then claim your gift aid on the sale price money. If you don't pay much tax and you donate boutique or rare items of clothing you could end up owing HMRC money. Althoigh most charity shops now only allow returns for credit rarher than refund, there have been cases where charity shops did allow refunds and the person who donated the original itens is then liable to pay the extra tax into HMRC. I don't want to get embroiled in it at all.

Some people also have an ethical objection against Gift Aid in general. If you take the position that the state ought to be meeting people's needs for health and social care and that charities are meeting the needs where the state's offer is inadequate then it's a potential opinion to hold that it is inappropriate to remove some amount of the state's tax revenue and give it to the charity because in effect you are therefore merely contributing to making the state's funding shortfall worse

there was no reason why you couldn’t just give her your post code!

If her husband is the one being registered as having made the gift aid declaration, it’s not unreasonable that he consents to it. If you’re “giving” more gift aid than you pay in tax, then you are liable for the difference. Plus - as a pp said, he may be philosophically opposed to the idea of gift aid and may not want to do it. That is his right. There was no need to be rude or pushy about it.

Because he’d need to know the amount of gift-aid claimed for his self-assessment.

She was rude, however, you should know enough about your affairs to have been able to deal with a simple and expected request in these situations without the permission of your husband.

I’m a volunteer in a charity shop. Why is it stressful?

There are loads of charity shops in my town. There are are a few I refuse to go in. I’ve donated really decent items but have always been met with huge sigh and “ what’s in there, we have lots of donations so, what is it you are donating?” One, I just replied, “ oh, you don’t want it then, and just walked out”. You’d think I’d handed them a bag of poo.

After this happened a couple of times I started selling things on Vinted, put clothes in a bag and used in the the large dept. Store recycling offer (£5 off for 5 items) and anything left I donate to the one shop that says “thanks”, when I drop it in.

It’s a shame, but often it’s the staff who put you off.

This!

Just another day in the life of a mumsnetter!

”My husband deals with that”????

The woman sounds rude.

As pointed out by a couple of other posters, Gift Aid diverts tax away from the public purse so I no longer do it. Especially if it's a larger charity.

She was rude and you were weird.

How is that relevant?

Good point

It's a fair point though that someone made above that they ask your postcode first and then your address, the same with emailed receipts.

I am getting sick of handing out my email address/postcode etc to so many organisations. I wouldn't mind but I get loads of junk email now & some physical stuff that goes straight into recycling. Plus some companies have clearly sold on my mobile number too because I get called from random call centres I never signed up to.

In this situation I would have just said I don't pay tax which I don't at the moment and left my husband out of it.