What did section 13 of the Small Charitable Donations Act 2012 originally provide for?

Section 13 originally set out rules for situations where a newly formed charity took over the activities of several existing charities. It allowed the new charity to inherit the Gift Aid claiming track record of its predecessor charities, ensuring eligibility for the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme was not unfairly reset by organisational restructuring.

Why was section 13 of the Small Charitable Donations Act 2012 repealed?

Section 13 was repealed by the Small Charitable Donations and Childcare Payments Act 2017 as part of a broader simplification of the scheme's eligibility conditions. The 2017 amendments removed the requirement for charities to demonstrate a multi-year Gift Aid claiming track record, making the specific merger provisions of section 13 redundant.

What are the simplified eligibility requirements that replaced the section 13 merger provisions?

Under the simplified rules introduced from 2017–18 onwards, charities simply need to have been registered with HMRC for at least two complete tax years and to have made a successful Gift Aid claim in each of those years. These straightforward conditions apply to all charities, removing the need for specific multi-charity merger provisions.

How did section 13 affect a new charity formed from the merger of multiple existing charities?

Under the original section 13, a newly created charity taking over the combined activities of several predecessor charities could rely on those predecessors' Gift Aid claiming histories to satisfy the eligibility requirements for the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme, preventing the merger from unfairly resetting the charity's qualification status.

Small Charitable Donations Act 2012 section 13

Charity mergers: new charity taking over activities of several charities

Section 13 dealt with the rules that applied when a new charity was formed to take over the activities of several existing charities, and how this affected eligibility for Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme top-up payments.

Section 13 originally provided rules for situations where a newly formed charity took over the work of multiple predecessor charities.
These rules allowed the new charity to inherit the track record of its predecessors for the purpose of qualifying for the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme.
Section 13 was repealed in its entirety by the Small Charitable Donations and Childcare Payments Act 2017.
The repeal reflected a simplification of the eligibility requirements for the scheme, removing the need for specific merger provisions.

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