Charity Annual Return

Registered charities in England and Wales with a turnover of over £10,000 and all charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs) have to submit an annual return to the Charity Commission.

This year, based on the outcome of a consultation, the Charity Commission has added some new questions to the online form.

There are 20 new questions but don’t worry, you probably won’t need to answer all of them – many only apply if you answered ‘yes’ to a previous question and we think quite a few of the questions won’t be relevant for our groups (so it’s just a case of answering ‘no’ rather than providing lots of information).

Additionally, some questions are optional this year but will be mandatory from 2019 (this is to give you a chance to prepare to collect the information for 2019). Topics covered by the new questions include:

Fundraising and funding from central government/ local authorities
Non-UK income and expenditure
Trustees who are directors of trading subsidiaries
Staff and Safeguarding

The Charity Commission has issued some guidance including a table telling you what the new questions are. We recommend looking at the table before you complete your return.

If your income is under £10,000 (excluding CIOs) you don’t need to submit an annual return form. However, you should keep charity details up-to-date and submit annual income and expenditure figures.

If your income is over £25,000 you’ll also need to submit your account and trustees report.

Further resources to help you with your annual return: