Non-filing charities face faster removal from Register of Charities

The Charity Commission is introducing new measures to ensure that charities that no longer operate are removed from the Register of Charities. Charities will be removed from the Register if they do not respond to a series of warnings after they have failed to file their accounts or returns.

The Commission reports that in the last year 25% of charities on the Register failed to file their accounts or returns on time, namely more than ten months after their financial year ended.

Indeed, 9,000 charities with a previous known income of more than £10,000 have not sent an annual return or accounts for the last financial year, Of these, 1,200 have not sent an annual return or accounts for more than six years.

The Commission already notifies a charity that fails to send in its documents on time that it is in default. From now on it will send a second default notice four months later, explaining that the charity will be removed from the Register if due documents are not submitted.

If there is no response after another four months, all the known trustees of the charity will be warned that the charity may be removed from the Register if the documents are not submitted within four months.

If a full year after the original deadline the relevant documents have still not been submitted, the charity will be removed from the Register and, where appropriate, action will be taken to protect its assets.

Andrew Hind, the Commission’s Chief Executive, said: "Charities are accountable to their donors, beneficiaries and the wider public. Reporting requirements are not excessive, yet a quarter of all charities miss this deadline and file late. This is unacceptable. With high public interest in charity accountability, charities simply have to do better".

www.charitycommission.gov.uk