Social media is rarely out of the news these days, often with adverse consequences for those that have misused it or failed to take proper precautions over its use. The charity sector has not been immune to this, with the RSPB being the centre of a political row after a tweet it published accused Government ministers of being liars, for which the RSPB chief executive had to sub ...

The voluntary and community sector will be able to apply for grants from HMRC to support their work with taxpayers who need extra assistance with their tax affairs. Eligible organisations need to bid for the funding, worth £1.8 million a year from 2024 until 2027, up from the current annual grant of £1.66 million, through HMRC's voluntary and community sector grant funding pro ...

Charities that are registered for VAT should be aware that from the start of this year the way penalties are issued for submitting late VAT returns and for paying VAT late have been amended. A new points-based system has been introduced which is designed to be more lenient for the occasional error but still penalises those who repeatedly fail to comply with their obligations. C ...

The Fundraising Regulator has published research that shows that the majority of charities are not complying fully with the requirement to disclose details of the fundraising activities in their annual report, requirements that affect charities in England and Wales with income over £1 million. Compliance was better for those charities that pay the fundraising levy, but of them ...

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published proposed changes to FRS102, the accounting standard upon which the charity reporting requirements set out in the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) is based. These proposals are set out in an exposure draft known as FRED82 and are currently being consulted upon. If approved the changes will also result in the need for th ...

It’s been a busy few months at CCEW. As well as the guidance that has already been commented upon elsewhere in this edition of Charity News there have also been a number of other developments in their guidance for charities that are worth noting. First of all CCEW has developed a range of ‘5 Minute Guides’ designed to raise awareness of core trustee duties and the guidance tha ...

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has published a new report that sets out the cyber threat that all charities now face, noting that in their 2022 survey of cyber security breaches 30% of charities had experienced a cyber attack during the previous 12 months, with over a third of those attacks having an impact on services and nearly a fifth resulting in a ‘negative outc ...

CCEW has published draft guidance on the use of social media by charities. The guidance notes that charities are increasingly making use of social media to promote the work that they do, engage their supporters and campaign for change. It also acknowledges the role social media has with members of the public to engage with or debate the work that charities do. The draft guidan ...

In our last edition we reported on proposed changes to the annual return. It is now confirmed that these changes will take effect for financial years ending on or after 1 January 2023. CCEW have now published guidance on what information charities will need in order to be able to answer the new questions that are being included in the annual return for the first time, so that  ...

In our last edition we reported on the reforms set out in the Charities Act 2022 that took effect from 31 October 2022 in England and Wales. CCEW has now ensured that its guidance material has been updated for these legislative changes, in areas such as managing conflicts of interest, making payments to trustees and fundraising. New guidance has also been issued for the first t ...