I would probably go with Bryony on this; We might need to come to agreement with HR on this issue through discussion between Bryon and finance person of HR, these will cover the accounting and the legal side. Secondly, the solution agreed by the account/finance people(of dignity and HR) might need to be discussed with tech people to see what they feel about it( how its going to be implemented in the platform). Other elements I think would be good to have think a bit more is whether we solely focus on bringing as much donation as possible( number of donation and amount of donations) and work out the elements of fees and tax. In all cases, the bottom line might be a long-term solution that works for both dignity and Help Refugees.

Firstly I don’t think PayPal is fee free even for charity donations

If you collect the donations as an intermediary I think you can collect gift aid (but not on any amount that goes to you). Essentially you’ll be an intermediary, as an intermediary you may be required to issue annual statements to all donors each year https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gift-aid-and-intermediaries/gift-aid-and-intermediaries.

You will be taxed on your profits as a company also as there is no clause to not be taxed unless you are a charity yourself.

@gailbainbridge ! Exciting to see a comment from you on here, and thanks for that 🙏 really helpful article. I knew there was a way of collecting Gift Aid on behalf on charities.
Inspired by the responses on here I've created this doc which lists the best ways we could design our donation pathway - in terms of best user experience & positive social impact. Hopefully with this, we can work out what the closest we can get is to our number 1 fav option, legally and tech-wise:

http://tiny.cc/donationpathways

@lukeflegg your link isn't working. @gailbainbridge thank you!!

Cheers mate, added the S on the end now so should work 🤗

Hmm.. Shall I create another 'personal' bank account (which I don't actually use for personal stuff) with Metrobank, into which all charity donations raised through Dignity get paid into,

then I make those donations to the charities, accruing full Gift Aid?

Not a long term solution of course, but for pilot, could be the best of all worlds?

My latest leaning is toward setting up a PayPal.me link for Dignity platform
(like http://PayPal.me/dignityplatform/10 ) that doesn't charge fees. For it to be fee free, the payer needs to select 'Friends & family' rather than 'paying for goods' I think.
Also our PayPal account needs to be linked directly to a bank account (not just a card). There may be an issue with it being a business bank account, so I'll investigate that unless someone else is able to take this on for me.
If there's no way to receive PayPal.me donations fee-free with Dignity's bank account, my learning is toward using an otherwise personal bank account (not used for anything else) which either passes the money on to Dignity (via fee-free bank transfer) or simply donates directly to chosen charit(y/ies)

@andrewevans as I understand (from Pasco/ what Pasco relayed from Steve from HMRC) we wouldn't get taxed on the incoming money from Hirers into Dignity's PayPal/ Metrobank account because we'd offset 100% of it as an expense.
I was a little surprised about that because I thought it was impossible to 'pay' a charity. I thought you could only donate to them. So maybe we are donating, but a donation can be considered an 'expense' even though it's not paying for anything. @gailbainbridge might know more - no pressure to chip in Gail! Only if you want to share any thoughts!
@alfredseni . Fingers crossed Bates Wells Braithwaite legal will get back to us with pro bono advice on this!

Either way, this still feels to me the best way to start for now

@andrewevans just checking you saw this ^

I'm also wondering what (if anything) is stopping us from moving money from Dignity to one of us (say me) and I then make the donation to the charity, accruing Gift Aid.
I guess I would just need to make sure I don't try to claim more Gift Aid than I'm eligible for?
Not sure if there's a way I can avoid getting sunny with income tax on that though 🤔 maybe this is what Prism Gift Fund is set up to help with.

@pasco and all, question: What do you think of us doing as agreed here but adding a step: one of us transfers the paid money from Dignity to our personal account (I guess in the future, on a larger scale, this would probably count as income, legally?) then as an individual we make the donation to the charity, and Gift Aid would apply?
Is that legally dangerous to do at this early stage?

I'm not convinced this is a good idea... for now or the future. Legal implications are probably complex and it feels very messy.

Donations to registered charities are a tax deductible expense. Businesses cannot gift aid donations because they have had the tax deduction. Gift Aid is a mechanism whereby tax paid by the donor is handed over to the charity. In a business no tax has been paid. Also you cannot legally transfer funds from a business account to a personal account unless it is salary or dividends. You guys need an accountant - speak to John Thacker at Chariot House he’s a great guy with tonnes of charity knowledge!

Thanks Gail! I'll reach out to John :) Really appreciate you popping in!