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Primary education

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Original poster

state schools and gift aid

10 replies

pandwhelmed · 13/12/2022 15:43

hi, I am a trustee of my primary school PTA. It is a local authority supported school. I want to know if any schools have managed to gift aid one off donations from parents.

Here is what I know so far:
All schools are charities, but are exempt charities. They are not registered with the charity commission but are regulated as charities the regulator being the Secretary of State Education (thinkstudent.co.uk/do-state-schools-have-charitable-status/)

Our school has a PTA that is a registered charity. The school would like to directly fundraise as well as they have greater control over what it can be spent on.

Question is, can they gift aid those donations?

OP posts:
TizerorFizz · 13/12/2022 18:04

PTAs are registered with the Charities Commission. As you say. They are not charities if they don’t. The PTA is nothing to do with the school. State schools are not charities. They are regulated by the Secretary of State.

It might be a school can be a charity if if runs a charitable activity, but your question seems to suggest the school wants to raise funds because it has a different agenda to the parents. I would say you might put the pta out of business (so to speak) and piss off parents if you set up an alternative charity. Why would your parents bother to make any effort in future. The school will end up doing all the work. Although regular donations from parents might benefit by going via a charity.

Might I suggest a way forward? The school SLT should support the PTA and be able to work with them on how to spend the money raised. It makes little sense in this day and age for fund raising not to be targeted on what’s really needed. So work with the parents and agree what’s needed. if that’s not possible, set up a charity but presumably there’s only so much money parents will give.

LadyLapsang · 16/12/2022 21:21

I think an important aspect may be whether there could be perceived to be a personal benefit to the person making the donation, e.g. if you donated money to buy a violin for the school and your DC then used the violin. Otherwise people sending their children to independent schools could argue the case for gift aid on the fees for their children.

Spendonsend · 16/12/2022 21:31

The PTA can register as a charity and fill out the forms to do gift aid on certain types of donations.

The school cant do it on direct donations.

GolfForBrains · 16/12/2022 23:39

The school can do it if eg they are a faith school and the donations go to the "governors' fund" which pays the school's 10% capital contributions to improvement works. That is where ours goes. It is separate from the work of the PTA.

Yellowmellow2 · 19/12/2022 09:27

GolfForBrains · 16/12/2022 23:39

The school can do it if eg they are a faith school and the donations go to the "governors' fund" which pays the school's 10% capital contributions to improvement works. That is where ours goes. It is separate from the work of the PTA.

This is correct. Schools are exempt charities so can claim Gift Aid on donations , and many faith schools have a fund to pay the 10% on capital funding. This fund, though, is totally different to the PTA, which is a separate entity.

Donations to PTA are trickier as, in most cases, PTA funds are raised through donations that are linked to purchasing things eg, raffle tickets, admission to an event, school fairs etc. you can’t claim gift aid on such donations.

TizerorFizz · 19/12/2022 16:31

Voluntary Aided schools pay. Others don’t.

PatriciaHolm · 19/12/2022 22:58

State Schools can gift aid donations, separately to anything run by the PTA, but only for specific types of donation;

www.gov.uk/guidance/gift-aid-what-donations-charities-and-cascs-can-claim-on#donations-to-schools-charities-involved-in-running-schools-and-educational-trusts

"Donations made to an appeal or for a specific charitable purpose of the school, may be eligible for Gift Aid. Donations must not be linked to the provision of any benefit to a student related to a donor. Donations given for the following will usually qualify for Gift Aid:
• non-uniform days
• sponsored events
• building appeals
• equipment appeals"

Original poster
pandwhelmed · 21/12/2022 13:16

TizerorFizz · 13/12/2022 18:04

PTAs are registered with the Charities Commission. As you say. They are not charities if they don’t. The PTA is nothing to do with the school. State schools are not charities. They are regulated by the Secretary of State.

It might be a school can be a charity if if runs a charitable activity, but your question seems to suggest the school wants to raise funds because it has a different agenda to the parents. I would say you might put the pta out of business (so to speak) and piss off parents if you set up an alternative charity. Why would your parents bother to make any effort in future. The school will end up doing all the work. Although regular donations from parents might benefit by going via a charity.

Might I suggest a way forward? The school SLT should support the PTA and be able to work with them on how to spend the money raised. It makes little sense in this day and age for fund raising not to be targeted on what’s really needed. So work with the parents and agree what’s needed. if that’s not possible, set up a charity but presumably there’s only so much money parents will give.

Thank you for your input. I did not get any notifications on this thread hence the reason for MIA.

I agree that the way forward is to get the SLT and parents to agree on working together, thats sensible advice.

thank you.

OP posts:
ChezCoeurs · 20/08/2025 19:42

When state funded schools became academies following the 2010 Act, they lost the support of their local authority's VAT status and could not reclaim any VAT they would incur on goods and services. The DfE then determined that converting academies became "companies limited by guarantee with charitable status" so they could reclaim any VAT incurred. This contrasts with private schools that could not reclaim the VAT they incurred.
Some of these state funded academies registered with the Charity Commission so they could claim Gift Aid on any donations parents make towards their children's education. For example King David's academies in Manchester received donations of £1 1/2 million from their parents, on top of which they received £1/4 million in Gift Aid from HMRC!!
Interestingly, higher rate taxpayers can get actual cash back from the HMRC on their donations towards their child's education in a state funded academy.
A way that PTA's can raise extra funds is to use their school's VAT status. Say a PTA raises £5,000 and wants to buy the school some goods to reflect their effort. What the PTA should do is make a "general donation" of £5,000 directly into the school's bank account. The school can then buy £6,000 of VAT goods - £5,000 from the PTA and reclaim £1,000 from HMRC.
This was a legitimate approach I regularly told the schools in the local authority I worked for for many years.

Original poster
pandwhelmed · 22/08/2025 08:24

ChezCoeurs · 20/08/2025 19:42

When state funded schools became academies following the 2010 Act, they lost the support of their local authority's VAT status and could not reclaim any VAT they would incur on goods and services. The DfE then determined that converting academies became "companies limited by guarantee with charitable status" so they could reclaim any VAT incurred. This contrasts with private schools that could not reclaim the VAT they incurred.
Some of these state funded academies registered with the Charity Commission so they could claim Gift Aid on any donations parents make towards their children's education. For example King David's academies in Manchester received donations of £1 1/2 million from their parents, on top of which they received £1/4 million in Gift Aid from HMRC!!
Interestingly, higher rate taxpayers can get actual cash back from the HMRC on their donations towards their child's education in a state funded academy.
A way that PTA's can raise extra funds is to use their school's VAT status. Say a PTA raises £5,000 and wants to buy the school some goods to reflect their effort. What the PTA should do is make a "general donation" of £5,000 directly into the school's bank account. The school can then buy £6,000 of VAT goods - £5,000 from the PTA and reclaim £1,000 from HMRC.
This was a legitimate approach I regularly told the schools in the local authority I worked for for many years.

Thank you for putting this out here! Our school's business manager has been doing this for our school.

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