A couple of recent changes have come to our attention that we felt deserved highlighting for anyone working with, or on behalf of charities:
1. From 1st October, charities have to submit gift aid repayment claims using the Charities Online Service as Form R68i will become redundant. HMRC say it will reduce repayment times from an average of 26 days to 3 but there seems to be some mixed views on how easy it is to use.
2. The Charities Commission have released revised guidance on what constitutes public benefit in a charity. This has been done in response to the publicised use of Charity exemptions in some significant tax avoidance arrangements, although the Charities Commission believes that for most charities the public benefit is clear and easy to define.
We will give a more detailed commentary on the Public Benefit changes in a forthcoming blog post but in the meantime if you have any questions or concerns surrounding charities, or Trustee duties and obligations please contact our charities team at your local office on 0845 177 5500 or using the online contact form.