Qualifying Charitable Donations and Box 305 on the CT600

If your company makes qualifying charitable donations to a parent charity — for example, a trading subsidiary transferring profits to its parent charity — this is deducted in Box 305 of the CT600. It reduces your taxable profits (Box 315) and can bring your corporation tax liability to zero.

How to Enter Qualifying Donations in TinyTax

TinyTax supports Box 305 (qualifying charitable donations). To use it:

On the submission form, set your company type to Mixed Income (Advanced)
In the profit and loss section, you will see a Qualifying charitable donations field below the profit before tax line
Enter the total amount of your qualifying donation
TinyTax automatically reduces your chargeable profits (Box 315) by this amount
Preview and submit as normal

ℹ The qualifying donations field is available under the Mixed Income (Advanced) company type. If you are currently set to Trading or Property, switch to Mixed Income to access this field. This does not affect your other figures — Mixed Income includes all the same fields as Trading and Property.

What Are Qualifying Charitable Donations?

Qualifying charitable donations (sometimes called qualifying donations or gift aid payments) are payments made by a company to a charity under the Gift Aid rules. They are deductible from profits before corporation tax is calculated. This is common in trading subsidiaries that pass all or most of their profits up to a parent charity.

The amount is entered in Box 305 of the CT600, which reduces Box 315 (Profits chargeable to corporation tax).

How Box 305 Affects Your CT600

Box 305 sits between Box 300 (profits before donations) and Box 315 (chargeable profits):

Box	Description	Example
300	Profits before qualifying donations and group relief	£75,000
305	Qualifying charitable donations	£75,000
315	Profits chargeable to corporation tax (Box 300 minus Box 305)	£0

If your donation equals your profits, your corporation tax is nil. TinyTax handles the capping automatically — you cannot donate more than your profits (HMRC rule 9334).

Common Questions

My company is a trading subsidiary of a charity — can I use TinyTax?

Yes. Set your company type to Mixed Income (Advanced) on the submission form and enter your Gift Aid payment in the qualifying charitable donations field. TinyTax will file both your CT600 and accounts.

What if the donation brings my taxable profits to zero?

This is the most common case for charity subsidiaries. TinyTax handles it correctly — enter the full donation amount, and your CT600 will show £0 corporation tax due.

Is Box 305 the same as Gift Aid?

Box 305 is used for company Gift Aid payments (qualifying charitable donations made by a company to a charity). This is different from an individual claiming Gift Aid on a personal donation. The company deducts the payment from its profits before calculating corporation tax.

Can I enter qualifying donations as a Trading or Property company?

No — the qualifying donations field is only available under the Mixed Income (Advanced) company type. Switch to Mixed Income to access it. This gives you all the same fields as Trading or Property, plus additional ones like Box 305.

Does the donation appear on my accounts?

Box 305 is a CT600 tax computation concept, not a profit and loss item. The donation itself may appear in your P&L as an expense (depending on how you account for it), but the Box 305 entry only affects the tax calculation, not the accounts.

Was this guide helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!