Small Charitable Donations Act 2012

2 Meaning of “eligible charity”

(1) A charity is an eligible charity for a tax year if—

(a) it has made a successful gift aid exemption claim in at least 2 of the previous 4 tax years, and

(b) the charity’s start-up period expired before that year.

(2) If a charity did not make any successful gift aid exemption claims in a period of 2 consecutive tax years, any claim made in an earlier tax year is to be disregarded for the purposes of subsection (1)(a).

(3) A charity on which a penalty has been imposed in connection with a gift aid exemption claim or top-up claim made by the charity is not an eligible charity—

(a) for the tax year in which the claim was made, or

(b) for the next tax year,

(even if the penalty was imposed after the tax year in which the claim was made).

(4) For the purposes of this section—

(a) a charity’s “start-up period” is the first period of 2 consecutive tax years during which it is, at all times, a charity (as defined by section 18(1));

(b) “penalty” means a penalty under—

(i) Schedule 24 to the Finance Act 2007, or

(ii) regulations under section 11;

(c) a penalty is not to be regarded as having been imposed if all of the penalty is suspended (or the decision that a penalty is payable is cancelled on appeal); but this does not apply to a suspended penalty that subsequently becomes payable.