A while back my mum told me about CAF accounts. It’s excellent! Most of us feel we pay enough tax and depending on whether you agree with how it’s spent you may be OK with it. Anyway that’s a different conversation right?
So the reason I’m all for having a CAF account is because you don’t pay tax if you make a donation. You get the tax back without doing a thing. No claimiung. No forms. No fuss. No hassle.
So you can use this money you get back and spend it on whatever you want? No, you can only use it to give to a charitable organisation. So you don’t benefit directly but why should the government have this money if a fund that needs it can benefit from it. Well, that’s my view anyway. So here are the details from their website.
All your giving under one roof
The CAF Charity Account brings together all the tools you need to make giving to charity easy, flexible and secure.
It’s a modern solution that puts you in complete control of your charitable giving, whether you give regularly or on impulse, to many causes or just a few.
f you’re a UK taxpayer*, opening a CAF Charity Account can actually give you more to donate to charity. With Gift Aid, we reclaim basic rate tax on all the money you put in your account and add it to your balance. We take a small fee** to cover our costs, but you end up with 23p more to give for every pound you put in your account at no extra cost to you.
All charities can use Gift Aid to reclaim tax on donations, but many don’t – it can cost more in admin expenses than the tax benefit is worth. The CAF Charity Account is an easy way to make sure that every penny you donate has been Gift Aided: saving you time, saving charities’ money.
- A UK taxpayer who will pay enough in Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax in the relevant tax year to cover any tax reclaimed on your donations.
- Each time you fund your account, we take a contribution of 4% on sums up to £16,000 and 1% from £16,001 to £89,500. 1% of this goes to the NCVO. Any surplus returns to the charitable sector, for example through our grants programme.
Online banking
If you shop online or bank online, why not give online, too? With the CAF Charity Account, you can login at any time to make a donation, check your balance or top up using a credit or debit card.
You’ll also get a ‘charity chequebook’ which you can use to make donations from your account in person or by post – you can even use them for sponsored events and to give to places of worship.
And if you want to support charity regularly, you can set up a standing order direct from your CAF Charity Account to the causes that matter to you.
Giving anonymously
We understand that not everyone who gives to charity wants the world to know about it. You may not even want the charity to know your name and address.
With the CAF Charity Account, you can choose to make your gifts to charity anonymous. Your donations can still benefit from Gift Aid, but we won’t pass on any of your details to the charities you support.
You can choose to make your ‘charity cheques’ anonymous, too – and all your information is protected under the Data Protection Act.
That means you won’t have to worry about receiving unwanted communications from the charities you choose to help.
Who can you give to? How can you give with confidence?
With the CAF Charity Account you can give to any UK-registered charity, including thousands of schools, hospitals, places of worship and community groups like Scout packs.
We guarantee that the charities you support through the CAF Charity Account are legitimate. For charities in the UK, we check they’re registered with the appropriate authority. We can even validate the status of charities overseas.
Only genuine charitable organisations can redeem ‘charity cheques’ from a CAF Charity Account, so you’ll be certain that your money is going to a bona fide organisation.
Support from CAF
We know that no one likes automated phone exchanges – and that’s why you can call our customer service team and speak to a real person, between 8.30am – 5.30pm, Monday – Friday.
Whether you want to make a donation over the phone, ask about a feature of the CAF Charity Account, or just check your balance, our advisers are on hand to help you.
And if you’d rather send us an email, you can do that too – we’ll always aim to get back to you within 48 hours.
