Most of you know that registered charities must report annually to Charities Services. Charities are required to complete an annual return, and submit accompanying financial statements, within six months of the end of their financial year. This provides for the on-going accountability and transparency of registered charities, as the information is publicly available on the charities register.

The annual return for registered charities is being updated. The changes are being made for a couple of reasons – to ensure that we have accurate information about your charity on the register, and to broadly align the financial information collected through the annual return with what needs to be reported in the financial statements under the new reporting standards.

The new annual return will take a bit more time to complete. Charities will be asked to check and update their charity’s details (including details of officers and contact information for the charity) and answer a few new questions. Some of the new questions relate to obligations under the new reporting standards. Other questions help us identify charities that may have obligations under tax or anti-money laundering legislation.

We will also ask for additional identifying information about officers, including full name, date of birth and home address information. Currently, we only have an officer’s first and last name. This is not enough information for us to accurately identify individuals when we need to. The date of birth and home address information will not be publicly available.

The new annual return form will be available from April 2016. When charities submit their first performance report under the new reporting standards they will have to use the new annual return form. (The performance report will include non-financial and financial information and replaces the financial statements charities previously submitted.)  There will be a transition period, so that charities that are not yet required to report under the new standards can still complete the current annual return form.

All charities are strongly encouraged to complete the new annual return form online. This will be easier for charities, as some of the information will already be included on the form. And there will be useful help boxes and further information online to support charities to complete the new return.

We will keep the sector updated about the introduction of the new annual return form through our regular newsletters and information on our website.

Find out more about the new reporting standards, including when your charity will need to report using the new requirements and links to what a performance report for your charity might look like.