Yes, almost any donation to any charity (or community amateur sports club) is eligible, and it would be unheard of for a church not to qualify as a charity. (Perhaps not so unheard of for them not to register as such with the tax authorities, as it's a lot of faff - as this thread makes clear.)
I'm not aware of any church that has a membership fee, and I'd be amazed to learn of one. In the case of tithing (which is expected in only a very small minority of churches) I imagine it would be cast as a donation, and not as membership. Our common law holds a membership fee to be contractual: it's consideration given in return for some benefit, and this is why it can't be a donation (and so is ineligible for Gift Aid). I wonder if possibly the exception you mention arises on a similar basis: if the benefits received are purely spiritual, possibly the law doesn't regard that as consideration for the fee, so there is no contract at common law, and so the "fee" is, after all, a donation. Edward _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.