Why we built HMRC submission into Givr, and how it actually works

The £560 million problem nobody talks about

Across UK churches, an estimated £560 million in Gift Aid goes unclaimed every single year. Not because churches don't want the money. They do. It's because the process is broken. Gift Aid claims require you to gather declarations, match them to donations, verify everything against your donor records, fill in HMRC's reporting forms, and submit them within specific deadlines. For a church treasurer working unpaid on a Tuesday evening, this is purgatory.

Most churches either don't claim at all, or they claim late, or they claim incompletely. Some use spreadsheets. Some use paper forms they've had since 2004. Some just give up and use a shoebox system.

When we built Givr, we decided this couldn't be part of the user journey. If someone was going to use our platform to give, the Gift Aid claim should happen automatically, behind the scenes, with zero additional work from the treasurer.

How the HMRC Charities Online connection actually happens

Here's the flow. A congregant scans your church's QR code, gives money in about 15 seconds through their phone browser. At that moment, they're also asked if they're a UK taxpayer and if they consent to Gift Aid. That declaration gets stored against their donation record.

When you're on Givr's Gather tier (which includes automated Gift Aid and HMRC submission), the system continuously monitors those declarations as they come in. Once you're ready to submit a claim period to HMRC, we handle the heavy lifting. We collate all valid declarations within your chosen period, match them to confirmed donations in your bank reconciliation, format everything to HMRC's exact specifications, and submit it directly to HMRC Charities Online on your behalf.

You don't fill in forms. You don't cross-reference spreadsheets. You don't miss deadlines because you forgot to check your inbox. The system does the work, flags anything that needs your attention (like a donor who gave but didn't complete their declaration), and keeps a complete audit trail of what was submitted and when.

What actually happens on submission day

Our first live submission to HMRC was in autumn 2023. I remember sitting with our lead developer, watching the API logs as the first claim went through. There was a moment of complete silence. Then a confirmation. An actual reference number from HMRC. A real claim, submitted electronically, no human error, no paper forms, no lost envelope.

It sounds small. It wasn't. That single submission represented about £8,000 in Gift Aid that would have otherwise required hours of manual work and carried a real risk of being done incorrectly or late.

Now, every time a church on Givr submits a claim to HMRC, the same thing happens. The claim goes through electronically, authenticated, verified, and recorded. HMRC processes it. The Gift Aid gets paid into the church's account. And the treasurer gets a notification that it's done, with a full record of what was claimed and why.

The pieces that had to fit together

To make this work, we had to think about more than just the HMRC connection. A Gift Aid claim is only valid if the underlying donations are legitimate and properly recorded. So Givr's bank reconciliation has to be solid. The declarations have to be properly captured and timestamped. The donor records have to be trackable. The small donation scheme (GASDS) rules had to be built in for churches that need them.

We also had to ensure that nothing about this process required an FCA licence or regulated payment handling on our side. That's why we use Stripe Connect Express for onboarding. Stripe is FCA authorised. We're not. Your money goes directly to your church's bank account. We never hold it. This keeps the whole thing simple and legal.

The Gift Aid itself works on a performance fee model. You only pay us a percentage (2% of what we claim) once HMRC confirms the money is actually in your account. You don't pay upfront. You don't pay if something goes wrong. It's aligned with your success.

What treasurers actually tell us

The feedback from churches using automated HMRC submission has been consistent. Relief. One treasurer told us it took her two hours instead of two days to process a quarter's donations. Another said she'd simply stopped claiming Gift Aid because the old process was too painful; now she claims every quarter, automatically, and reclaimed £3,500 in back Gift Aid.

The system isn't magic. It's meticulous. It catches edge cases. If a donor gave five times but only made one declaration, the system knows. If someone gave just before the deadline but their declaration came in after, the system flags it. These things still need a human to look at them and make a judgment call. But 90% of the work is gone. The treasurer can focus on the tricky 10%.