In January this year legislation came into force to incorporate the EU’s Fifth Money laundering Directive into UK law, and expanded the scope of the Trust Registration Service (TRS) by requiring all UK some non-EU resident express trusts to register with the service. At the time it was thought that charitable trusts would fall within this definition and would be required to reg ...

Charities will often use publications to inform the public about their work and the area in which they operate, and increasingly in an electronic format rather than physical form. Charities will also try to generate extra funds in this way to fund their charitable activities. Since 1 May 2020 the supply of certain e-publications became zero-rated, mirroring the treatment of mo ...

The VAT treatment of advertising expenditure is an area where charities receive special treatment as unlike commercial entities the supply of advertising to a charity is zero-rated, which given that many charities are not registered for VAT themselves and therefore unable to recover input tax, can result in a significant cost saving. The means by which charities conduct their ...

Many charities will currently be in the process of preparing their accounts for the last financial year, and those with trading subsidiaries will be considering how best to manage their tax position. The usual approach for a subsidiary that has generated profits is to donate that profit to its parent charity, either by gift aid or deed of covenant, which if done within 9 months ...

To help with the financial downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic many lessees have been granted rent concessions by their landlords. This could take the form of a temporary rent reduction or a rent holiday. Due to a lack of any clear guidance in existing standards there have been differing views as to how concessions such as these should be accounted for, leading to inconsis ...

At the July meeting of the SORP Committee the timetable and process for the publication of the next version of the Charity SORP was discussed. Future changes to the Charity SORP will be closely tied to more general developments in UK accounting practice and the next update of FRS102, the financial reporting standard upon which the SORP is based. As a result we can now expect th ...

Information Sheets are published by the joint SORP-making body and seek to clarify the application of the SORP, or cover matters not addressed in the SORP but are relevant to charity reporting. Two new Information Sheets have been published, although are likely to be of limited application to most charities. However where relevant, preparers of charity accounts should read them ...

All charities across the UK who do not prepare receipts and payments accounts should adopt the accounting principles set out in the Statement of Recommended Practice for Accounting and Reporting by Charities (‘The SORP’) when preparing their financial statements. The SORP is based upon FRS102, The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland, being ...

It may not feel like it at times, but the pandemic has not been the only news story of 2020. The Black Lives Matter protests that followed the death of George Floyd in the United States showed that race equality remains a major issue in the UK as well, and perhaps one where there is renewed impetus to make lasting changes for the benefit of all. The charity sector is not immun ...

It may sound surprising, but a large number of charities struggle to spend their income on meeting their charitable objectives for the public benefit. Working in conjunction with the UK Community Foundations Network and the CCEW, the ‘Revitalising Trusts’ programme seeks to assist inactive or ineffective charities by helping them to identify beneficiaries and spend their income ...