The Charity Commission has added a question to the annual return which asks if the charity is registered for gift aid.
Information given on the annual return, available now on the Charity Commission website, is used to update the sector regulator’s online Register of Charities. Organisations can use its online service to complete their Annual Return and/or submit their Trustees’ Annual Report (TAR) and accounts.
This new annual return, launched today, is largely similar to previous versions, except that when charities complete their annual return this year, they will additionally be asked if the charity is registered for gift aid, whether the charity owns or leases any land or buildings, and whether any of the charity’s land or buildings are used for the charity’s purposes.
Further to this, some previously voluntary questions are now mandatory. Charities must provide geographical details of where they applied their resources outside England and Wales during the financial year and must provide details or an estimate of the amount spent in, or to benefit, each of the countries in which they operated.
And organisations must record their best estimate of the number of individual volunteers involved in their charity during the financial year.
‘Better information increases trust’
A Commission spokeswoman said that the changes "reflect the results of a public consultation on the information that people most wanted to know about charities".
Sam Younger, chief executive of the Commission, elaborated further: “The information which charities give us through the annual return helps [them] to tell the public about what they do and the benefits which they provide. The answers to the additional questions will now provide more information about how they work, by enabling the public to quickly and easily find out which charities collect donations from the public or have volunteers working for them.
“Better information helps to underpin the trust and confidence which the public has in charities both through increased public transparency and by enabling the Commission to better understand the sector and individual charities which it regulates. “
The annual return must be completed within ten months from the charity’s financial year end and should be submitted online via the Commission’s website. The Commission has produced video tutorials to help with the process.
Charities can submit their annual returns on the Commission's website here.
