Gift Aid paid to charities rose by 10 per cent last year, official figures show.
Estimates published by HM Revenue & Customs show that £1.88bn was paid to 67,650 charities in the year to April 2026, up from £1.71bn in the previous 12 months.
It was part of slightly more than £5bn of relief in tax relief for charities paid over the course of the year, where annual estimates are available, up 2 per cent year on year.
The figures show that £2.87bn was given to charities in the form of business rate relief, a 1 per cent fall on the previous year.
The amount of Gift Aid paid to charities that received more than £1m in relief rose from £850m in 2024/25 to £980m last year, HMRC’s figures show.
But this was paid to just 210 individual charities out of the almost 68,000 that received the relief over the course of the year.
The amount of higher rate relief claimed by donors rose by 10 per cent year-on-year to £920m in 2025/26, according to HMRC’s provisional forecast.
HMRC said 1.3 million people declared a donation on their self assessment return for the tax year ending April 2025, about 2 per cent fewer than the previous year.
But the value of their declarations of all types of donations rose by 12 per cent, said HMRC.
It said it would not know the value of donations taxpayers will declare in 2025/26 until self assessment returns for that year become due in 2027.
Philippa Cornish, client relations director at the Charities Aid Foundation, said: “In a challenging economic climate, it is positive to see the increase in Gift Aid, but we know that charities continue to miss out on millions every year from generous donors who don’t know about or forget to tick the Gift Aid box.
“Concerningly, the number of people declaring donations on their self assessment return has not increased, even though more people are in higher tax brackets.
“We need to increase awareness of the incentives available for charitable giving in order to increase support for charities from those who are in a financial position to donate.
“We know donors are more likely to give, and give more, when financial advisers raise charitable giving with them.”
Payments made under the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme, which allows charities to claim a Gift-Aid-like payment on small donations without the accompanying paperwork, remained flat at £40m.
HMRC said annual estimates for Corporation Tax, Income Tax, Stamp Duty Reserve Tax and VAT reliefs for charities were not available, because charities are generally not required to inform HMRC when they use these reliefs.