Phil Watts

The Finance Bill 2019, as announced in the Autumn Budget 2018, includes a small but welcome adjustment to the small-scale trading exemption which applies to charities.

The Charity Commission has recently published two pieces of updated guidance relating to safeguarding and serious incident reporting.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has published its annual update of the Academies Financial Handbook, which became effective on 1 September 2018.

A recent review has brought into question the position regarding donations made by for-profit subsidiary companies to their parent charities.

Check the status and structure of the school — maintained schools are owned and run by the local authority; ‘academies’ and ‘free schools’ are publicly funded, independent schools, which are owned and run by an academy trust.

If you are a charity registered with the Charity Commission then each year, depending on your income and/or the type of charity you are, you will be required to file your Annual Return.

Given that Academy Funding Agreements oblige Academies and Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) to abide by the terms of the Handbook, new editions provide a key mechanism by which the Department for Education (DfE) can subtly impose additional requirements and restrictions.

1. What is a PSC Register? The PSC register is a new statutory register that most UK companies and LLPs are required to keep from 6th April 2016 as a result of the changes introduced by the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015.

However, it fairly quickly became apparent that for the almshouse charities which are also Registered Providers (and, therefore, regulated by the Homes and Communities Agency) there were a number of potential barriers to the move to CIO status.