Latest Charities

It is common practice for a trading subsidiary company to pay their profits to their charitable parent as a donation under gift aid. This is tax efficient for the subsidiary company, as the profits that have been donated are treated as a donation expense and therefore there is no corporation tax due if paid within…

The Charity Commission is worried about the number of charities not reporting serious incidents or taking a long time to do so. This has perhaps become a concern since the Commission raised a statutory inquiry into Oxfam in February, following allegations of misconduct by staff in Haiti. It is a Charity’s trustee’s responsibility to ensure…

We are fortunate to have many worthy charities in and around our area all making a huge contribution to our community. When it comes to the fraudsters charities do not have any exemption, in fact quite the opposite, they are often seen as a soft touch.  The Charity Commission has just published ‘Tackling Charity Fraud’…

When an employee becomes a trustee it is important to consider what the salary is paying them for – either trustee duties or for their contractual employment. There are only limited circumstances when trustee boards can pay a trustee for carrying out their trustee duties. Whilst there is a general power to pay a trustee…

Later this year The Charity Commission will introduce a tailored annual return which will include some new questions which may require preparation in advance. Overseas expenditure As these new questions will likely require additional preparation, they will be optional for 2018 but become mandatory for 2019 onwards: When spending money outside England and Wales, did…

  The government have recently updated their guidance to help protect charities from fraud. The guidance contains advice, regulatory alerts and links to other helpful websites to help charities to understand fraud and how to protect themselves against it. In December 2017, Action Fraud opened a cyber-attack helpline. If you experience a live cyber-attack, this…

  In November 2017, the government posted research into awareness and effectiveness of trusteeship in England and Wales. This recommended that charities should do more to promote diversity on their boards. This would involve encouraging applications from women, young people and people from ethnic minority and socially diverse backgrounds. Some of the key findings of…

  Charities with the financial year end of 31 March 2017 must submit their annual return by 31 January 2018, 10 months after the year end. What you need to submit varies based on whether it is an un-incorporated organisation or a charitable company. It also varies based on income of the charity – requiring…

  For many years now, many mid-sized UK charities have been required to subject their annual statutory accounts to independent examination. For such charities, with income within the range of £25,000 to £1m and gross assets of less than £3.26m, an independent examination is a lighter touch of independent scrutiny than a full audit. As…

  A new service is now available for individuals who want to limit the contact they receive from charities. The Fundraising Preference Service (FPS) should give individuals greater control over how and when charities can contact them. The FPS, which launched on 6 July, allows individuals to select charities that they no longer want to…