Claiming tax relief on charity donations if an HR taxpayer. Is it easy to do?

[northender]

Dh is an higher rate taxpayer and we make various donations to charity including things like cub/scout subs. I believe he could claim tax relief on this money but have only just found this out and so have a few questions! He pays tax through PAYE btw.

Can you do a retrospective claim and if so, how far back?
All donations have gone from a joint account that his salary is paid into but literature from the charities comes in my name and I may well have signed the gift aid form. We will change this but will that mean we're unable to claim retrospectively?
Is it a complicated process to claim and what evidence do you need to provide of the donations?

I will ring the tax office but thought I'd see if anyone on here could help

You need to do a tax return really, but I think there's a simplified cut-down form for people who just have PAYE + savings interest + charitable donations. You don't routinely have to send them evidence, but if they decide to audit you then you may have to show some sort of proof (bank statements and credit card bills should be enough).

I was higher rate briefly from two sources of income, both PAYE, and was told by HMRC I didn't need to do a tax return. To get the tax relief on charity donations I just had to write a letter stating what tax year I was claiming for and what I had been paying (for my regular donations giving the direct debit number I think, don't know what the evidence required would be for irregular/one-off spends). This was claiming back about 4 years, btw.

Call your tax office and just explain what sort of things you think are deductible and what they would expect you to do. It may turn out that they say you would be best doing a tax return for next year but if it really is just charitable subs from a PAYE income I would expect not, simply from my own experience, I'm not remotely qualified.

Thanks for your replies. That's what I was hoping for Lexy. We do several small standing order donations and then scouts subs, so if we can backdate it then it will really add up. Not enough to retire on but better than a kick in the teeth!

Thought I'd update. Dh got through to the tax office on Thursday and they took all the details over the phone. They will send a cheque for the back claim and are altering dh's tax code so a great result! We are now making sure we gift aid any donations and keep a detailed record from now on. Well worth doing.