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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:
- Prepare a charity annual return (Charity Commission)
- Trustee handbook (Making Music)
- Reporting on public benefit (Making Music)
- Safeguarding– what are your responsibilities (Making Music)
