HMRC reminder: split and advertise your membership fee for Gift Aid

1 day ago

3 min read

If your club is a registered charity and claims Gift Aid on membership fees, HMRC has changed the ground rules. In March 2026, HMRC updated section 3.37.7 of its Charities Detailed Guidance Notes. The update makes one point clear: you must split your membership fee and tell members about that split before they sign up.

Get this wrong and you lose the whole claim on that fee, not part of it. Here is what the guidance says, who it affects, and what you should do now.

What HMRC now expects

Gift Aid only applies to a payment that is a gift. A fee that buys coaching, training sessions or use of facilities is a payment for a service. It is not a gift.

You can still claim on a Basic Membership fee if it gives members nothing more than constitutional rights, such as voting at the AGM. To do that, HMRC expects three things:

A separate Basic Membership fee that confers membership rights only.
Activity fees for training, coaching or facility use, charged separately.
Both amounts shown to the member before they join or renew, on your website, joining form, or online booking system.

The third point is the one the March 2026 update stresses. Splitting the fee in your accounts after the event is not enough. The member must see the split at the point of sign-up.

Why a bundled fee fails in full

Many clubs charge one annual fee and then claim Gift Aid on a portion of it. HMRC does not accept this. If the fee is bundled and the split was not advertised, the whole payment buys access to club activities. None of it counts as a gift.

So a club charging £300 a year cannot claim on £20 of it as a membership element unless members saw that £20 shown separately before they paid. Without that, your Gift Aid on the fee is nil.

Past claims and who this affects

HMRC treats the update as a clarification of existing law, not a new rule. That has two consequences for you:

You cannot make a retrospective claim on past fees where the split was not advertised at sign-up.
Claims already made on bundled fees may be open to challenge if HMRC reviews them.

This guidance applies to clubs registered as charities, including SCIOs and CIOs. If your club is a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC), the position is simpler. CASCs cannot claim Gift Aid on membership fees at all, however the fee is structured.

Check your constitution too. In a single-tier SCIO, ordinary participants often hold no membership rights. If a fee buys no constitutional rights, there is no Basic Membership to Gift Aid.

A worked example

Take a charitable club with 200 adult members. Each pays £300 a year. 140 of them are UK taxpayers who have signed a Gift Aid declaration.

Fee set-up	Amount eligible per member	Total eligible	Gift Aid at 25p per £1
£300 bundled, no split advertised	£0	£0	£0
£25 Basic Membership plus £275 activity fee, both advertised before sign-up	£25	£3,500	£875

The club collects the same £300 from each member in both cases. The only difference is how the fee is set up and shown. That difference is worth £875 a year.

A lower Basic Membership fee means a lower repayment. Work out your own figure before you restructure, so your committee can judge whether the change is worth making.

What to do now

Confirm your status. Are you a registered charity or a CASC? Only charities can claim on membership fees.
Read your constitution. Check that members hold rights such as voting at the AGM, and that your Basic Membership confers those rights only.
Set a separate Basic Membership fee. Keep training, coaching and facility costs in a separate activity fee.
Show the split before sign-up. Update your website, joining forms and booking system so members see both amounts before they pay.
Keep evidence. Save screenshots or copies of forms showing the split and the date it went live.
Stop claiming on bundled fees. Do not submit claims for past periods where the split was not advertised.
Collect valid Gift Aid declarations from each member who pays the Basic Membership fee for themselves.

Need help?

Club Development Consultancy is a registered HMRC Gift Aid agent. We help charitable sports clubs set up compliant membership structures, calculate the likely repayment, and manage claims through Charities Online. If you are unsure whether your current set-up meets the March 2026 guidance, get in touch (andrew@clubdevelopmentsolutions.com).

This article reflects our reading of HMRC's Charities Detailed Guidance Notes, Chapter 3, as updated in 2026. It is general information, not advice for your club's circumstances. HMRC makes the final decision on any Gift Aid claim. Source: HMRC Charities Detailed Guidance Notes.