June-September 2018

The Charity Commission for England and Wales published an updated list of the questions to be included in the 2018 Annual Return for registered charities. The trustees of charities excepted from registration with the Commission - which include a considerable number of church congregations - are not required to submit an annual return; but an increasing number find that they must do so because when an excepted charity's annual income exceeds 100,000 pound it loses its excepted status. The previously expressed intention to require every charity trustee to provide an e-mail address has been abandoned; instead, the Commission intends to ask all trustees either to supply an e-mail address or to confirm that they do not have one - which looks very like a welcome climbdown. The Commission's on-line Annual Return Service opened for submissions on 20 August.