Latest Charities

Charity annual returns due

  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…

Charity Accounts: New Independent Examination Rules

  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…

Charities bound by new Fundraising Preference Service

  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…

Ransomware advice for charities

Many organisations across 150 countries, including our own NHS, have been hit by a recent ransomware attack. The vulnerabilities  exploited by the hackers are the same for charities, individuals and public or private sector businesses. The Charity Commission is encouraging charities to follow protection advice released by the City of London Police and the National…

Charity accounts do not meet the required standard

A significant number of charity accounts fail to explain how the charity is meeting its objectives, while many do not meet basic standards for users, particularly in the very smallest charities, according to research from the Charity Commission.   Of a recent sample, 54% of charities did not meet the public benefit reporting requirement. Some…

Charity Audit Legislation

Charities: Changes to audit exemption thresholds. Changes to charity audit thresholds came into force on 31 March 2015, aimed at reducing the regulatory burden for charities. They include increasing the basic audit threshold from £500,000 to £1 million, meaning less charities will be required to subject their accounts to a statutory audit. Those charities can instead…

Gift Aid

New Charity Commission Guidance: Charities, trading subsidiaries and gift aid. The Charity Commission has withdrawn guidance from its website in connection with Gift Aid beyond distributable profits from charity trading arms to the parent charity. Some charities own subsidiary trading companies through which they carry out trading activities for a profit. The subsidiary may donate…

Charity Accounting Disclosures

New Charities SORP Published The new Charities SORP was published today and will apply to the accounts of charities for financial years commencing on or after 1 January 2015. There are two versions, one based on Financial Reporting Standard FRS 102 (new UK GAAP which replaces all earlier financial reporting standards) and a second for…