How to fill in the HMRC Gift Aid schedule spreadsheet

This walkthrough follows HMRC's template from top to bottom. If you have not seen the template before, read HMRC's Gift Aid schedule template explained first.

1. Check you can claim

   Your charity or CASC must be recognised by HMRC for tax purposes and have Charities Online added to its HMRC online account. Registering sends an activation code by post, which can take a week and must be used within 28 days (Claim Gift Aid online). You also need a valid Gift Aid declaration for every donation you list, and the claim must be within 4 years of the end of the financial period the donation was received in (How to claim).

2. Gather your donation records

   For each donation you need the donor's title if you have it, first name, last name, house name or number, postcode, the date the donation was received and the amount. The address must be where the donor lives, not a work or "care of" address. HMRC suggests Royal Mail's free postcode finder for missing UK postcodes.

3. Download the right template

   Get the Gift Aid donations schedule from GOV.UK: the Excel version if you use Excel, the LibreOffice version if you use LibreOffice. Check your language is English (UK) or English (GB). Do not convert one version into the other. See the template explained.

4. Fill in Box 1 and Box 2

   Box 1 is the earliest donation date in the period of the claim, as DD/MM/YY. Box 2 is any tax you over-claimed on an earlier claim; enter the tax, not the donation, or leave it blank.

5. Enter one donor per line

   Start at item 1 and work down without leaving blank rows. Title up to 4 characters. First name or initial up to 35 characters with no spaces. Last name up to 35 characters, with a space instead of a hyphen in double-barrelled names. House name or number up to 40 characters. Postcode in capitals with a space. Date as DD/MM/YY. Amount with two decimals and no £ sign. Leave the aggregated and sponsored columns blank on normal lines.

6. Combine regular donations

   Regular donations from one person can go on one line: add them together and enter the date of the most recent one. Only combine donations from the same accounting period. If the donations span two accounting periods, use one line per period.

7. Add aggregated lines for small donations

   Donations of £20 or less from different donors can be added together on one line, kept under £1,000. Leave the name and address blank, enter a description of up to 35 characters such as "Thursday club donors", the date of the last donation and the total. Only combine donations from the same accounting period, and never include donations linked to admission to a charity visitor attraction.

8. Add sponsored event lines

   For each participant, enter their name and address, Yes in the sponsored event column, the date the charity received the money and the total Gift Aid donations they raised. Their address can be home, work, or a school for a child at a school event. Any donation over £500 goes on its own line with the donor's details and without Yes.

9. Enter donors who live abroad

   Put the address in the house column and X in the postcode column. This includes the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, which should not have postcodes. HMRC asks for full details for these donors: house, street, city, region, postcode or zip code and country.

10. Check before you save

    Look for spaces before or after entries, N/A or Nil in empty cells, blank rows, £ signs, and dates with hyphens or full stops. Make sure you have no more than 1,000 lines, and that the total shown at the top looks right.

11. Save as .ods

    Save the file as an OpenDocument Spreadsheet, for example Gift Aid Oct 2026.ods. Do not change the .ods ending and do not rename the worksheet tab R68GAD_V1_00_0_EN.

12. Attach it to your Charities Online claim

    Sign in, go to "Services you can use", choose "access service" next to Charities, then "make a charity repayment claim". Answer the questions and fill in "About the organisation". On "repayment claim details", attach the schedule with "browse" or "choose file". When every stage has a green tick on the summary page, go to the declaration page and submit (Charities Online guidance).

13. Note the reference and keep your records

    You get an on-screen confirmation with the date, time and a reference number. Note it; it is not a confirmation of payment. HMRC says online claims are normally paid within 4 weeks. Keep your donation records for 2 years after the claim deadline (How to claim).

A worked example

These rows are the examples in HMRC's own template, shown as they should be entered:

The first row is a normal donation, with a double-barrelled surname written with a space. The second is a donor living abroad. The third is an aggregated line. The fourth is a sponsored event participant, entered with an initial.

If the upload fails

For an error beginning "ASM", check you did not paste data in and that the file is saved as .ods. For any other system error, check for blank spaces before or after entries (HMRC guidance, "Error messages"). The errors checklist covers the rest.

Sources

Every rule on this page comes from these GOV.UK pages and HMRC's template, checked on 24 October 2026:

• Schedule spreadsheet to claim back tax on Gift Aid donations (guidance, last updated 28 November 2025)
• Gift Aid schedule spreadsheets to claim back tax on donations (downloads)
• Claim tax back on donations using Charities Online
• Claim Gift Aid online
• Claiming Gift Aid as a charity or CASC: how to claim
• Gift Aid declarations

If your donations are already in a spreadsheet or a CSV export, Donor Schedule can check each row against these rules and fill in HMRC's template for you.