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Author: DCAS
Changing Your Charity’s Structure
When to change charity structure
Changing to a different charitable structure usually involves setting up a new charity, transferring your original charity’s assets and liabilities to it then closing your original charity.
Your charity’s legal structure sets out what type your charity is. There are four common types of charity structure:
- charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) – there are 2 structures; association CIO and foundation CIO
- charitable company (limited by guarantee)
- unincorporated association
- trust
Your charity’s legal structure determines:
- who will run it and whether it will have a wider membership
- whether it can enter into contracts or employ staff in its own name
- whether its trustees are personally liable for what it does
Informing Companies House of Changes
You must tell Companies House about any changes to your limited company, including:
- directors and company secretaries, eg new appointments, resignations or changes to their personal details
- changing your company name
- changing your registered office address
- changing your accounting reference date
- changing where your company records are kept, if different from your registered address
- which records you’ll keep at an alternative address
Increase of Automatic Enrolment Pension Contributions
The minimum contributions that you and your staff pay into your automatic enrolment workplace pension scheme are increasing.
Minimum contributions are increasing in two phases. The first increase must be in place from 6 April 2018 and the second from 6 April 2019.
Most employers use pension schemes that currently require a total minimum of 2% contribution to be paid. The calculation for this type of scheme is based on a specific range of earnings. For the 2017/18 tax year this range is between £5,876 and £45,000 a year (£490 and £3750 a month, or £113 and £866 a week).
This table shows the minimum contributions you must pay and the date when they must increase:
| Date | Employer minimum contribution | Staff contribution | Total minimum contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Until 5 April 2018 | 1% | 1% | 2% |
| 6 April 2018 to 5 April 2019 | 2% | 3% | 5% |
| 6 April 2019 onwards | 3% | 5% | 8% |
The staff contribution rate may vary depending on the type of tax relief applied by your scheme. If you are unsure check your scheme documents.
Statutory Maternity Payments Help
We received this cry for help recently – ‘My employee is entitled to Statutory Maternity Pay, but we can’t afford to pay it – what can we do?‘
Help is available from HMRC
If you can’t afford to make payments
You can apply for HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to pay you in advance if you can’t afford to make statutory payments.
How to apply for advance payment
Apply online to be paid in advance for:
- Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)
- Statutory Paternity Pay
- Statutory Adoption Pay
- Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP)
You can apply up to 4 weeks before you want the first payment
Charity Trustee Disqualification
People Who Can’t Be Trustees
People aged under 18 (16 if your charity is a Company or Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO))
People who are disqualified by law (banned) from acting as charity trustees, including anyone who:
- has an unspent conviction for an offence involving dishonesty or deception
- is currently declared bankrupt (or is subject to bankruptcy restrictions or an interim order) or has an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) with creditors
- is disqualified from being a company director
- has previously been removed as a trustee by either the Charity Commission or the High Court due to misconduct or mismanagement
- is disqualified from being a trustee by an order of the Charity Commission under section 181A of the Charities Act 2011
While a person is disqualified they will also be disqualified from holding positions with senior management functions (whether paid or unpaid) within the charity or charities concerned, unless the commission includes an exception in the disqualification order that this is not the case.
You can search the register of Removed Trustees here
Closing your PAYE Scheme
You need to tell HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) straight away if you stop employing people.
Closing your PAYE scheme
You need to submit a final payroll return – either a Full Payment Submission (FPS) or Employer Payment Summary (EPS). You should:
- deduct and pay any outstanding tax and National Insurance to HMRCwithin 17 days (or 14 if you’re paying by cheque)
- select the ‘Final submission because scheme ceased’ box
- put the date you closed your PAYE scheme in the ‘Date scheme ceased’ box – you can’t put a date in the future
You also need to:
- send your expenses and benefits returns
- enter a leaving date on each employee’s payroll record
- give your employees a P45 on their last day – most payroll software can produce a P45 for you or you can order them from HMRC
If you start employing anyone in the same or next tax year, you should reopen your PAYE scheme by sending an FPS with your PAYEreference.
If you temporarily stop employing staff
Your PAYE scheme continues to run if you stop employing staff for less than a whole tax year (eg if you run a seasonal business). You don’t need to give your employees a P45 if you keep them on your payroll.
More details can be found here
Workplace Pensions – Changing Jobs
A workplace pension is a way of saving for your retirement that’s arranged by your employer.
Some workplace pensions are called ‘occupational’, ‘works’, ‘company’ or ‘work-based’ pensions.
If you change jobs
Your workplace pension still belongs to you. If you don’t carry on paying into the scheme, the money will remain invested and you’ll get a pension when you reach the scheme’s pension age.
You can join another workplace scheme if you get a new job.
If you do, you may be able to:
- carry on making contributions to your old pension
- combine the old and new pension schemes
Ask your pension providers about your options.
If you move jobs but pay into an old pension, you may not get some of that pension’s benefits – check if they’re only available to current workers.
If you worked at your job for less than 2 years before leaving, you may be able to get a refund on what you’ve contributed. Check with your employer or the pension scheme provider.
You can find out more details about Workplace Pensions here
Andrew Buxton Memorial Award 2017
Last Thursday we had a trip out to Women’s Work, Derby to the presentation of the Andrew Buxton Memorial Award 2017. The certificate and cheque were presented by Mrs Janet Buxton.
They won the award for presenting the best-kept set of accounts this year. One might think that this is the sole responsibility of the Finance Officer, but they are only able to do their job well if the rest of the team work with them. Women’s Work Derby are a shining example of how to work as a team, and their award is well deserved.
Balance Sheets
Again, it’s nothing to do with acrobatics – but we liked the picture!!
The balance sheet is the second-most-important financial statement that an accounting system produces, after an income statement. A balance sheet reports on a business’s assets, liabilities, and reserves at a particular point in time
- The assets shown on a balance sheet are those items that are owned by the business, which have value and for which money was paid
- The liabilities shown on a balance sheet are those amounts that a business owes to other people, businesses, and government agencies
- Reserves are the amounts that the charity has generated over the lifetime of its existence
As long as you understand what assets and liabilities are, a balance sheet is easy to understand and interpret
Derby Community Accountancy Service 