Retail Gift Aid in one paragraph
Retail Gift Aid is the scheme HMRC operates that allows a charity shop to claim the 25% Gift Aid uplift on the proceeds of the sale of a donated good, provided the donor is a UK basic-rate taxpayer (or higher), has signed the relevant consent, and has been told the sale price within a reasonable period. The charity sells the good on the donor's behalf, treats the net proceeds as a donation from that donor, and reclaims the basic-rate tax on the donation from HMRC. The mechanics are publicly set out by HMRC in its Gift Aid guidance for charity shops, and the major charity-shop trade bodies (the Charity Retail Association in particular) publish accessible summaries.
Where Gift Aid applies, and where it does not
Retail Gift Aid applies to the sale of donated goods. A specialty donation (a gold chain, a silver tea service, a watch, a small collection of coins) that is sold via GoldPaid is, in Gift Aid terms, the sale of a donated good. The 25% uplift on the net sale proceeds is therefore available, on the same basis as for any other donated good sold from the same shop.
Retail Gift Aid does not apply to a cash donation made at the till; that is a different Gift Aid route. It does not apply to a donation of services. It does not apply if the donor is not a UK taxpayer, or has not signed the relevant consent. It does not apply if the donor has not been informed of the sale price within the HMRC-required window. The point of this guide is to walk through how those conditions are met when the goods are sold through GoldPaid rather than off the shop floor.
Linking a specialty donation to a donor record at the shop
Every charity-shop chain that runs Retail Gift Aid already has a way of linking a donated good to a donor record. The mechanics vary: a unique donor ID tag stapled to the good, a till barcode that links to the donor on sale, a paper docket attached at the back-of-shop sort. Whichever method the shop uses, the GoldPaid process is the same: the specialty donation gets tagged at the back-of-shop sort in the same way as any other donated good.
When the parcel is prepared for GoldPaid, the donor ID for each tagged item is recorded on the parcel manifest, a simple list that goes inside the parcel alongside the items themselves. The manifest is a one-page sheet showing parcel reference, sending shop, date, and a row per item with the donor ID. The shop keeps a copy of the manifest before posting and a copy goes inside the parcel.
The GoldPaid per-parcel report and what the shop does with it
When the parcel is valued and the offer is accepted, GoldPaid issues a written per-parcel report. The report records every item that was in the parcel, the assayed purity and weight where applicable, the indicative auction comparables where applicable, the offer per item, and the total offer for the parcel. Critically for Gift Aid purposes, the report carries the donor ID for each item as supplied on the inbound manifest. This means each line on the report can be mapped back to a donor record at the shop.
The shop's existing Gift Aid process then takes over. Per item, the donor is informed of the sale price within the HMRC-required window (most chains do this by a periodic statement to the donor; some do it per sale). The net proceeds are recorded against the donor on the charity's Gift Aid claim system, and the basic-rate tax is reclaimed from HMRC at the next claim cycle. The GoldPaid report is the source document that feeds the existing process. It does not replace the process; it sits underneath it as evidence.
The sale-price requirement and the audit picture
HMRC requires that the donor is informed of the sale price (and the net proceeds attributable to them) within a reasonable period after sale. The exact wording and the de minimis thresholds are set out in HMRC's guidance and updated from time to time. The relevant point for this guide is that the GoldPaid report carries the per-item sale figure, which is what the charity needs in order to populate the donor notification.
The trustee-friendly PDF that accompanies the per-parcel report is the document the charity's finance team or auditor will want to see if they are asked to evidence the basis of a Gift Aid claim relating to specialty donations. It carries: the parcel reference, the assay readings, the LBMA benchmark on the day, the auction comparables (where applicable), the per-item offer, and the date the offer was accepted. With the GoldPaid report alongside the shop's donor records and the charity's Gift Aid claim record, the audit picture is complete.
The de minimis no-receipt rule and the £20 threshold history
HMRC operates a de minimis rule under which a charity does not have to write to the donor every single time their goods are sold, provided the cumulative proceeds in a tax year are below a published threshold. The threshold has been adjusted by HMRC over the years; the charity's Gift Aid lead will know the current figure. For specialty donations the proceeds per donor are often higher than for ordinary stock (a single sovereign or a single gold chain can exceed the threshold in one transaction), so it is worth checking whether a specialty sale crosses the threshold and triggers the per-sale notification rather than relying on the annual statement.
GoldPaid does not make the call on whether the threshold is crossed for any particular donor; the charity's Gift Aid lead does. The role of the GoldPaid report is to give the Gift Aid lead the per-item sale figure so the call can be made with the right number in hand.
What if the donor cannot be identified or has not signed consent
Some specialty donations come in without donor identification: left in a black bin bag at the back door, posted anonymously, or handed in by a third party who has no knowledge of the original donor. The shop's existing rule for anonymous donations applies: if the donor cannot be identified or consent cannot be evidenced, Gift Aid is not claimed on that item. The sale proceeds become part of the shop's general donated income and are accounted for on that basis.
GoldPaid records anonymous items on the manifest as anonymous, and the per-parcel report carries them through as anonymous lines. The audit picture is preserved (the proceeds are still attributable to the shop and parcel), but the Gift Aid claim simply does not include them.
How the per-parcel report fits the existing Gift Aid claim system
The big charity-shop Gift Aid systems (the ones the major chains use) take a structured feed of donor ID, item description, sale date and net proceeds. The GoldPaid per-parcel report is available as a CSV download as well as a PDF, and the CSV column headers are designed to be easy to map onto whatever feed the charity's Gift Aid system expects. For chains with a smaller, spreadsheet-based Gift Aid process, the CSV opens directly in the existing workbook.
In either case, the Gift Aid lead does not have to re-key the data from the GoldPaid PDF. The intent is to make the GoldPaid output sit cleanly underneath the existing process, with no additional manual work for the shop or for head office.
The decline path and what happens to Gift Aid on a returned item
If the charity declines the GoldPaid offer on a particular item, the item is returned: free insured return of any item the charity chooses not to sell. A returned item has not been sold and so does not generate any Gift Aid event. The shop receives the item back, the manifest entry is closed as not sold, and the donor record at the shop is left unchanged.
If a later sale of the same item takes place (off the shop floor, through an auction, or by re-submitting to GoldPaid at a later date), that sale is the Gift Aid event. The donor record sits dormant until the eventual sale, at which point the existing process is followed in the normal way.
A note on same-day payment
Where the offer is accepted before 3pm UK time, GoldPaid initiates the Faster Payment to the charity's registered bank account the same business day. This is the operational rule that keeps the audit picture tidy: parcel valued, offer accepted, payment on the way, all before the working day closes. The Gift Aid event date is the sale date (which is the date of offer acceptance), and that date is on the per-parcel report.
Offers accepted after 3pm are settled the next business day. For Gift Aid purposes the date of sale is still the date of acceptance; the payment timing is a treasury matter rather than a Gift Aid one.
Common questions
Is the sale of a donated gold chain through GoldPaid a Gift Aid event?
Yes, on the same basis as any other sale of a donated good: if the donor is a UK basic-rate taxpayer, has signed the relevant Retail Gift Aid consent, and is informed of the sale price within the HMRC-required window, the charity can claim the 25% Gift Aid uplift on the net proceeds.
Does the donor ID have to be inside the parcel?
The donor ID has to be on the manifest that accompanies the parcel, not physically on every individual item. The shop can tag each item in whatever way fits its existing back-of-shop sort; the manifest is the bridge between the shop's donor records and the GoldPaid per-parcel report.
What if a donor has not signed Retail Gift Aid consent?
The item is sold on the normal donated-goods basis but no Gift Aid is claimed. The GoldPaid process is the same; the difference is in the shop's downstream Gift Aid claim, where the item simply does not feature.
Does GoldPaid file the Gift Aid claim?
No. GoldPaid produces the per-item sale record on the per-parcel report; the charity's own Gift Aid claim system files the claim with HMRC. The two sides are deliberately kept separate so the charity stays in control of its HMRC interface.
Can the per-parcel report be imported into our Gift Aid system as a CSV?
Yes. The per-parcel report is available as a CSV download alongside the PDF. The column headers are designed to map cleanly onto the standard feed used by the major charity-shop Gift Aid platforms.
What is the position on anonymous donations?
Items donated without donor identification are recorded on the manifest as anonymous and carried through to the per-parcel report as anonymous lines. The proceeds form part of the shop's general donated income; Gift Aid is not claimed on those items.