Charities
The governance and accounting requirements of a registered charity are quite complex. You need a charity accountant who has specialist knowledge of the Charities Act 2011, the related charities SORP and of the specific tax rules that are relevant.
We have established a specialist team of charity accountant expertise, who currently act for registered charities in many niche sectors:
- Registered social landlords,
- Education,
- Head office and branches of national charities,
- Theatre,
- Religious organisations,
- Medical charities,
- Pre-school playgroups,
- Charities which own and maintain a protected asset,
- And numerous good cause small local charities, set up for a specific purpose.
We find that the accounting services that these charity clients are most interested in are:
Compliance Services
- Preparation and submission of SORP compliant annual accounts,
- Assistance with submission of the annual return,
- Different levels of assurance on these charity accounts:
- No assurance
- Independent Examination,
- Audit (undertaken cost efficiently), including production of a helpful Management Letter with recommendations for the Trustees,
Outsourced Services
- Payroll,
- Tax reclaim forms for Gift Aid,
- VAT return completion and submission, in accordance with partial exemption rules,
Advisory Services
- Advice on operating structure:
- Unincorporated trust,
- Companies Act charity, registered by guarantee,
- Industrial and Provident Society Company.
- Making ourselves available for general support services, including attending your AGM, if required.
- Advice on statutory and financial governance issues.
- Operating with HMRC rules on trading.
Instruct us to prepare your charity’s statutory accounts and we shall unburden you of the worry of correctly complying with the SORP. We shall also ensure that these accounts are prepared in sufficient time to be filed with the relevant Authorities by the statutory filing deadlines and for your AGM. When preparing these accounts, we shall be mindful of your beneficial tax status and we shall actively seek proven techniques to enable you to reclaim further tax.
We are mindful of the pressures to control costs and look to complete our work in the most efficient way possible, working with you to reduce the time spent. We always look to agree a fee in advance and will discuss with you if this is likely to increase as our work progresses.
Client Review
We have found Whiting & Partners to be thoroughly professional in all the financial matters associated with our charity. Their understanding of both company and charity regulations is beyond any form of reproach. They are part of a winning team, for which our Board of directors are very grateful.
