This guide is for charities outside the US. It covers the official receipt rules in each country, then what Donor Merchant does and does not do for them. We checked every rule against the regulator's own pages in October 2026. This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Rules change, so check with your regulator or accountant before you rely on a receipt format.
Can a WordPress plugin take gifts in pounds and Canadian, Australian or New Zealand dollars?
Yes. Stripe lists the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand among its supported countries. All four currencies are on PayPal's list of supported currencies.
In Donor Merchant you pick the currency under Settings, General. GBP, CAD, AUD and NZD are among its 20 currencies, shown as £, CA$, A$ and NZ$. Number format follows the WooCommerce pattern: symbol position, thousand separator, decimal separator and number of decimals. A site has one currency, used for every form.
Processing fees differ by country, so change the fee recovery rate if you let donors cover fees. Donor Merchant's default is 2.9% + 0.30. Set your own under Settings, Payments, Processing fees.
| Country | Stripe, domestic cards | Stripe, local bank debit | PayPal charity rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK | 1.5% + 20p (standard UK cards); 2.8% + 20p (premium) | Bacs Direct Debit: 1%, minimum 20p, capped at £4.00 | 1.4% + 20p, after application and pre-approval |
| Canada | 2.9% + CA$0.30 | Pre-authorized debit: 1% + CA$0.40, capped at CA$5.00 | 1.60% + CA$0.30, after application and pre-approval |
| Australia | 1.65% + A$0.30 (includes GST) | BECS Direct Debit: 1% + A$0.30, capped at A$3.50 | 1.10% + A$0.30, after application and pre-approval |
| New Zealand | 2.65% + NZ$0.30 | NZ BECS Direct Debit: 1% + NZ$0.40, capped at NZ$4.00 | No charity rate shown on PayPal's NZ fee page |
Rates as published in October 2026 on Stripe's UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand pricing pages and PayPal's UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand fee pages. International cards and currency conversion cost more. Verify current rates with Stripe and PayPal before you set your fee recovery figure.
What must a donation receipt contain in each country?
United Kingdom
UK donors do not claim tax relief from a charity receipt the way Canadian or New Zealand donors do. Instead, the charity claims Gift Aid. GOV.UK says Gift Aid lets a charity "claim an extra 25p for every £1 you give," once the donor has made a Gift Aid declaration. Higher-rate taxpayers claim the rest of their relief through Self Assessment or by asking HMRC to change their tax code.
HMRC's Gift Aid guidance asks the charity for an audit trail "linking each donation to an identifiable donor who has given a valid Gift Aid declaration." For written or online declarations, it does not require you to send donors a receipt. Its model declaration for multiple donations can cover future gifts and gifts made in the 4 years before the current tax year, so one declaration covers a monthly donor.
The Charity Commission adds one rule for receipts. In England and Wales, a registered charity with income over £10,000 "must state that it's a registered charity on any fundraising documents and on many of its financial documents, including cheques, invoices and receipts," including emails and websites. The registration number is optional but "good practice."
Canada
Registered charities and other qualified donees can issue official donation receipts; non-profit organizations cannot. The CRA's list for a cash gift has 13 items:
- a statement that it is an official receipt for income tax purposes
- the charity's name and address as on file with the CRA, and its registration number
- a unique serial number
- the location where the receipt was issued, the date it was issued, and the date or year the gift was received
- the donor's full name, including middle initial, and address
- the amount of the gift, the value and description of any advantage received, and the eligible amount
- the signature of an individual authorized by the charity to acknowledge gifts
- the name and website address of the CRA
For emailed receipts, the CRA's guidance on computer-generated receipts recommends they "should be in a read-only or non-editable format" and "encrypted and signed with an electronic signature." For monthly donors, the CRA says a charity may issue one cumulative receipt for cash donations at the end of the year.
Australia
Gifts are tax deductible only when the organization has deductible gift recipient (DGR) status. DGRs are endorsed by the ATO or listed by name in tax law, and the ATO notes that "Not all charities are DGRs." The same page says the $2 minimum for a deductible gift was removed from 1 July 2026, backdated to gifts made from 1 July 2024.
The ATO's receipt rules are short. Most DGRs do not have to issue receipts (community charity trusts and corporations must, and must name the donor), but if one does, a receipt for a gift must show the organization's name, its ABN, and that the receipt is for a gift. The amount, a description of donated property and the date are optional.
New Zealand
Donors claim a donation tax credit of one third, and only for gifts to approved donee organizations. Inland Revenue's receipt requirements list:
- the donor's full name, the amount and the date (or the tax year)
- a clear statement that it was a donation
- your organization's name, IRD number, and Charities Services registration number if you have one
- your official letterhead or official stamp
- the full name, designation and signature of an authorized person
- a receipt number that is different for each receipt (if applicable)
Its IR255 guide adds that each gift must be $5 or more, unless regular smaller gifts total $5 or more over the year. For regular payments, you may show the total for the income year ending 31 March.
What does Donor Merchant put on the receipt?
Every completed gift gets a printable receipt the donor can save as a PDF from the browser. Under Settings, Email, Printable receipts you set:
- Tax ID / EIN, printed as "Tax ID: ..." under your name. Put your charity number, ABN or IRD number here. To change the label, add a row in Settings, Forms, Custom wording that finds "Tax ID" and replaces it with, say, "ABN".
- Organization address, printed under your name.
- Custom receipt statement, a block of text you write. Use it for registration details and your country's wording. Leave the Tax-deductible box unticked: its built-in wording is written for US charities, and your custom statement replaces it anyway.
The receipt also shows the donor's name and email, a receipt number unique to the gift (such as DM-000123), the date the gift was received, the campaign or "Donation," and the amount. Annual giving statements in the donor portal total each donor's gifts from January to December.
Here is how that fits each country's list:
| Country | Fit | What is missing |
|---|---|---|
| UK | Good. Put "Registered charity number ..." in the receipt statement and in the email footer. | Nothing required. Statements run January to December, not with the UK tax year that starts on 6 April. |
| Australia | Good. Name and ABN fit; add "This receipt is for a gift" to the statement. | Statements run January to December, not July to June. Single receipts are unaffected. |
| Canada | Partial. Name, address, registration number, serial number, date and amount fit; the CRA wording, website and place of issue can go in the statement. | The donor's address, a separate issue date, the advantage and eligible amount for each gift, and an authorized signature. The receipt is a web page, not a signed, read-only file. |
| New Zealand | Partial. Name, IRD number, Charities Services number, donor name, amount, date and a unique number fit. | The authorized person's signature and designation, and a letterhead or stamp. Statements do not follow the April to March year. |
So a Canadian or New Zealand charity should treat Donor Merchant's receipt as a thank-you and record, not as the official tax receipt. Issue official receipts through your receipting software or accountant. If you need donors' postal addresses for that, add a custom field to the form. Its answer is stored with the gift and included in the outgoing webhook, but it is not printed on Donor Merchant's receipt.
How does Gift Aid work in Donor Merchant?
Gift Aid is built in and free, and only offered when the site's currency is GBP. The form shows HMRC's model declaration with an unticked box and asks for a house name or number and postcode. Donor Merchant, Gift Aid lists gifts ready to claim and gives you a file in HMRC's column format to paste into HMRC's schedule spreadsheet.
Your charity still submits the claim to HMRC through Charities Online. Donor Merchant does not send it for you, does not take declarations by phone, and does not cover the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme. The Gift Aid setup guide has the steps.
What about recurring gifts and bank debit?
Recurring gifts, weekly through yearly, are charged in the site's currency on both Stripe and PayPal. Only Stripe recurring donors can update a card or cancel in the donor portal; PayPal recurring donors cannot do that there.
Donor Merchant's Bank debit (ACH) setting is for US bank accounts only. For other bank debits, here is what the code does. One-time Stripe gifts are created with Stripe's automatic payment methods, which, in Stripe's words, accept "payment methods that you enable in the Dashboard and that are compatible with this PaymentIntent's other parameters." Bacs, pre-authorized debit and BECS are not supported features: they might appear on your form if you switch them on in Stripe, but we have not tested them, so leave them off unless you have tested them in Stripe test mode first. Fee recovery treats them as a card, and they settle slowly: Stripe says a Bacs payment takes 4 business days to confirm, or 7 with a new mandate. Donor Merchant marks such a gift as processing until Stripe confirms it.
What doesn't Donor Merchant do for charities outside the US?
- No country-specific receipt templates. You write your own wording.
- No donor postal address, apart from Gift Aid's house number and postcode.
- No signature, letterhead or stamp on receipts.
- Annual statements cover January to December only.
- One currency per site.
- US bank debit (ACH) and Venmo only work for US donors.
- It runs on WordPress only. You need your own Stripe and/or PayPal account and pay their processing fees.
If those limits suit you, download Donor Merchant. Every feature is free, with no platform fee on top of Stripe's or PayPal's.
Sources
- GOV.UK: Tax relief when you donate to a charity, Gift Aid (read October 2026)
- HMRC: Charities detailed guidance notes, Chapter 3 Gift Aid, updated 17 July 2026 (read October 2026)
- Charity Commission: The essential trustee (CC3), section 5.2 (read October 2026)
- CRA: What information must be on an official donation receipt from a registered charity? (read October 2026)
- CRA: Computer-generated receipts (read October 2026)
- CRA: What to know before you give (read October 2026)
- ATO: Gifts and donations, updated 6 July 2026 (read October 2026)
- ATO: Receipts (for DGRs) (read October 2026)
- Inland Revenue: Donation tax credits (read October 2026)
- Inland Revenue: Requirements for creating donation receipts (read October 2026)
- Inland Revenue: IR255 Charitable and donee organisations, April 2026 (read October 2026)
- Stripe: Global availability and pricing for the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (read October 2026)
- Stripe API: Create a PaymentIntent and Bacs Direct Debit payments (read October 2026)
- PayPal: Currency codes and business fee pages for the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand (read October 2026)