gift aid

[billycat321]

Our choral society has a scheme whereby gift aid can be claimed on our subscriptions. We have been given a form to fill in with 2 options- subscribe to Gift Aid or tick a box saying 'I am not a UK taxpayer' which admits that I do not earn enough to pay tax. Is this an invasion of privacy? I don't want to admit to the treasurer that I am poor. What do other Mumsnetters think?

I doubt very much that anyone will care. But you could always leave it blank.

I don’t earn enough to pay tax. I’m not poor. Being a non tax payer is nothing to be ashamed of! (Unless it’s because you are evading tax).

It just means they won't ask you again, and thereby keeps their admin time down.
It's nothing to do with being "poor".

I don't pay tax, but I'm not ashamed of that (and I'm not poor).

Do you really think they'll give it a moment's thought after they've checked the forms?

You're really overthinking this. No-one is going to give it any thought at all.

Your income and tax arrangements could be overseas, you could be a SAHP, retired, independently wealthy with carefully arranged tax affairs, part time work or all manner of other reasons why you don't pay tax in the UK. The gift aid rules mean that they can only reclaim the tax if it has actually been paid, so if you don't pay tax, they can't reclaim it.

And anyway, if anyone was interested and they knew you well enough to know that you were a part time shop assistant for example, they'd be able to work out for themselves that you're unlikely to earn enough to pay tax, which doesn't automatically equate to 'being poor' for the reasons outlined above.