ProSearch
Donating to ShareGift through ProSearch
ShareGift is an independent UK-registered charity set up to deal with the longstanding problem of small unwanted shareholdings. Millions of pounds are tied up in assets which are of no value to their owners because they cost more to sell than they are worth. ShareGift aggregates and sells these parcels of donated shares, giving the proceeds to a wide range of UK charities. ShareGift accepts donations of shares and money arising from shares regardless of their value.
Since 1996 we have given over £65 million to more than 4,000 UK registered charities – large and small, covering a wide range of charitable work, local, national and international. There is no fixed list of charities we can support, and we are giving to new charities every month. We also give to a selection of charities in Ireland. We welcome all donations, large and small.
ProSearch have worked with ShareGift for many years, giving the shareholders and entitlement holders they trace the opportunity to donate those assets, and helping us to raise money for different UK registered charities. If you have some shares or a cash entitlement that you would like to donate in this way, please complete the claim form, indicating the ShareGift charity option, and return it directly to ProSearch. ProSearch kindly waive their administration fee for donations to ShareGift.
If you wish to suggest a charity for us to support, please do contact us. Please include your name and address details, what shares/cash you are donating, and your ProSearch reference number so we can identify your donation with ProSearch. We will only contact you if we need to clarify something regarding this donation – we do not send unsolicited mailings or pass on your details to any other third party.
Gift Aid
If you are donating the proceeds of a share sale and you are a UK tax payer, you can increase the value of gift to charity by up to 25%, at no extra cost to you, by authorising ShareGift to reclaim tax from HM Revenue & Customs through Gift Aid.
To qualify for Gift Aid, the amount you pay in Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax for each tax year must at least equal the amount of tax that ShareGift will reclaim on your gifts for that tax year.
Higher rate taxpayers can claim tax relief at the difference between basic rate tax and higher rate tax.
Joint shareholders will be presumed to be qualifying taxpayers, with donations split equally between the shareholders, and tax reclaimed accordingly, unless they inform ShareGift otherwise.
Gift Aid is not available to the personal representatives of shareholders who have died.
If you have other shares you wish to donate, please do contact us.
Tax Information
If you have given shares to ShareGift via ProSearch you may be eligible for tax relief.
If you are a UK taxpayer, you can claim income tax relief on the value of most listed stocks and securities when you donate them to a charity. In addition, donating shares charitably gives rise to neither a gain nor a loss for Capital Gains Tax (CGT) purposes. This means that you will not be liable for any Capital Gains Tax (CGT) which you might have had to pay had you decided to sell the shares instead. However, you should be aware that you cannot offset a loss against other gains if the shares you donate have gone down in value.
You can claim the relief via your self-assessment form. You will need evidence of your donation of shares for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Make sure you keep a signed and dated copy of the transfer form, which we will send you to sign when we have received your share certificate (or other evidence of your gift). You should also keep a note of the value of the shares on the date that you gave them to charity.
You can find the share price in the investor area of the company’s own website; share prices can also be found in the financial pages of a newspaper or its website, through a broker, in a share shop, on a specialised financial website or through a financial adviser. This information may be more difficult to find out at a later date.
Please note that ShareGift cannot give you financial advice about your individual circumstances or tax position. You may therefore wish to discuss the tax consequences of any donation of shares with your financial adviser or a qualified professional.
Please refer to the HMRC notes on giving shares to charity, linked below.
Gift Aid does not apply to donations of shares.