Audit Programme

The 2004 Self Audit

This exercise was initiated by the Archdeacons and aimed to ascertain the standard of administration of Gift Aid schemes across the diocese and to work with churches to improve or maintain standards. The report identified that 26% of churches were 'potentially at risk' of refunding tax due to inadequate recording. We worked with these churches so that now all were deemed to be 'acceptable'.

Download the Gift Aid Self Audit report.

The challenge for the diocese now is to maintain good standards - hence the launch of the Diocesan Audit Programme.

Diocesan Audit Programme

In 2007 the diocese and HMRC agreed on an internal auditing programme and training. In return, HMRC has agreed not to conduct any parish audits within our diocese for the next five years, but will visit our office to check on the work we have done.

We will work with churches to maintain an overview of all church schemes and to strive to maintain good standards of record keeping.

The scheme was launched in November/December 2007. To administer the scheme we are dealing with each church in one of three ways, according to the value of its annual tax refund:

  • Category 1 - under £5k tax per annum - an information sheet (1) will be issued to each church (for return within three weeks) one in 2008 and again in 2010.
  • Category 2 - between £5k and £20k tax per annum - each church will be visited once during the five-year period. The visit will be preceded by a slightly longer information sheet (2) (again to be returned within three weeks).
  • Category 3 - over £20k tax per annum - each church will be visited annually.


All visits will check on systems in place, validate audit trails and suggest improvements. A simple feedback report will be sent after each visit. Fact sheets will also be made available on a range of Gift Aid topics. Any tax wrongly claimed should be refunded.

Churches in Category 1 will be contacted if there are queries on the completed questionnaires and if necessary, we may visit them. Where we need to check on action requested during the Self Audit exercise, some churches may find that although they are below £5k tax, they will be dealt with as a Category 2 church.

We aim to hold training sessions each autumn and any people 'new' to dealing with Gift Aid will be invited to attend.

Manchester Diocese is the first in the UK to be offered this chance to self-regulate its Gift Aid schemes. This opportunity is as a result of the close links established with the Audit Department at Bootle over the past years and the work that we have all contributed within the Self Audit exercise. This is good news for all our churches.