How CHY3 tax relief works for Irish charities

What the scheme actually is

The Charitable Donation Scheme is set out in Section 848A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. The idea is simple: when someone donates to an eligible charity, the gift is treated as having been made after tax. Revenue repays the tax associated with it — and since 2013, that repayment goes to the charity rather than the donor, at one blended rate regardless of whether the donor pays tax at the standard or higher rate.

So the donor's experience is unchanged: they give what they give. The charity's experience is what changes — a qualifying €250 gift becomes roughly €362 once the claim is made.

Who and what qualifies

Three things have to line up:

• The charity must be an eligible charity or approved body holding a Revenue authorisation — a CHY number. (Registration with the Charities Regulator comes first; the Revenue authorisation is separate.)
• The donation must total €250 or more from one individual in a single tax year. Smaller regular gifts count toward the threshold — €25 a month for a year is €300, which qualifies.
• The donor must be an individual who is resident in Ireland for tax and who has paid enough Irish tax in the year to cover the relief being claimed. Companies use a different route (they deduct the donation as a trading expense), so the CHY3 scheme is about individual donors.

A few things don't qualify: anything where the donor gets a benefit in return (a raffle ticket, an event place, goods), and donations where the donor is connected to the charity beyond the allowed limit (see pitfalls below).

The maths

The relief grosses the donation up at 31% and repays the difference. The formula is:

relief = donation × 31 ÷ 69

Donor gives	Charity reclaims	Charity receives in total
€250	€112.32	€362.32
€500	€224.64	€724.64
€1,000	€449.28	€1,449.28

There's an upper limit too: a maximum of €1,000,000 of donations per donor per year can qualify.

The CHY3 form — the bit that unlocks it

None of this happens without the donor's signed certificate. The donor completes a CHY3 enduring certificate, which authorises the charity to claim on their qualifying donations for up to five years — so it's signed once and covers future years. (There's also a CHY4, a single-year certificate, if the donor prefers to certify year by year.)

The certificate is the legal record behind every claim. Keep it: if Revenue queries a claim, the signed CHY3 is what you point to.

How the charity claims

• Claims are made by the charity through Revenue's ROS system, donor by donor and year by year.
• You can claim for a year up to four years after it ends — so if you've never claimed, you can usually go back four years at once.
• You'll need each donor's details, the amount given in the year, and a valid CHY3 (or CHY4) on file.

This is the part we look after: EasyGovernance flags who has crossed €250, sends each donor the enduring certificate to sign, files it, and assembles the year's claim. The CHY3 tool →

Common pitfalls

• Counting non-qualifying income. Event tickets, raffle entries and anything with a benefit attached don't count toward the €250 — mixing them into a claim is the most common error.
• Connected donors. If a donor is an employee or member connected to the charity, relief on their donations is capped at 10% of their total income for the year.
• Missing certificates. A claim without a valid signed CHY3/CHY4 behind it won't stand up to a Revenue check. The signed form must exist before the claim.
• Leaving years on the table. The four-year window closes. Donations from five years ago can no longer be claimed.

This guide is general information, not tax advice. Reliefs and limits change — check the current rules with Revenue or your own adviser before you rely on them.