The Charity Commission has now made available its latest annual return for charities to fill in.
All registered charities with an income of more than £10,000 and all Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs) reporting on their financial years ending in 2016 must complete the online form within 10 months of the end of their financial year.
The annual return is available in English and Welsh for the first time. A beta version of the new service has already been tested by a limited group of charity users and was found to be much simpler for charities to use, taking only a few minutes to complete.
The regulator has said that the function to view and amend details about a charity’s trustees, contact addresses and emails is now separate from the annual return, so users can update these details at any time.
Charities will also be asked to confirm that this information is correct before submitting their annual return. There are also small changes to the financial information required of charities with an income of £500,000 and over, reflecting the changes needed as a result of the new SORP.
David Holdsworth, chief operating officer at the Charity Commission, said: “We are delighted to announce the official launch of the 2016 annual return in both English and Welsh. This is a first for the commission and is also part of our commitment to becoming a truly digital by default regulator. We have worked closely with the sector to ensure we are providing easy to use services that help trustees comply with their filing duties.
“Although charities have 10 months from the end of their financial year to complete their annual return, we urge them not to wait until then. We also encourage them to take a minute to make sure their information is up to date, and to use the built in customer feedback to tell us what they think.”
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