Trustee Expenses (and the option to Gift Aid these expenses back to the charity!)

Eleanor Berry, Charities Manager at Albert Goodman, gives her thoughts from a trustee perspective about claiming expenses.

We all know and adhere to the rule that as Trustees we cannot be remunerated for our trustee role. However, we are entitled to have our expenses reimbursed by the charity. Expenses can include a wide range of costs, for example, travel and other costs of attending meetings, specific telephone and broadband charges, travelling on trustee business, and providing childcare or care of other dependants while attending to trustee business. Expense claims should be supported by bills or receipts, and it is good practice for charities to have an expenses policy.

But what if you don’t want to be reimbursed for your legitimate expenses and the charity is registered for Gift Aid? If you have chosen to forego your expenses (which I know many of us do, as we don’t want to see the charity out of pocket), you could set up a system whereby you make the expense claim, the charity reimburses you (by way of physical payment), and you subsequently donate the expense payment back to the charity (again, by way of physical payment), Gift Aid can then be claimed on the donation. Certainly helpful, when 25p in every £1 can be claimed (Gift Aid rules apply)!

Please feel free to get in touch if you’d like to learn more and see how it could benefit your charity.