Author: DCAS

Authorising Online Payments From Your Charity

We all safeguard our Charity’s bank account by having authorised signatories when issuing cheques, but what happens when a payment is made electronically?

Some banks offer a service whereby one authorised person logs into the account and sets up a payment, then a second authorised person logs into the account with a different password to authorise the payment.

However, we have recently seen an ‘in house’ form which has been produced, whereby the authorised signatories can sign to verify the electronic transaction. This seems a much more straightforward way of safeguarding the account – and also may avoid further bank charges!

If you would like further information about this, please contact us here

Business Planning Training Course Date Announced

Advance Notice of our Business Planning Course

A Leading Firm of Derby Accountants will lead the day on Business Planning for your organisation Learn about preparing, implementing and monitoring a Business Plan

on Wednesday 14th June 2017

runs from 09:45 – 14:30

at the Derby Bosnian Centre DE1 1LN

Includes a FREE lunch!!

Book your place here

Salary Sacrifice Changes from April 2017

Salary Sacrifice allows some employers and employees to pay less Income Tax and NICs by replacing cash salary with Benefits In Kind (BiKs) – such as private healthcare, mobile phone, a company car, a gym membership

The measure will limit the Income Tax and employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) advantages where BiKs are offered through salary sacrifice or where the employee can choose between cash allowances and BiKs. Salary sacrifice is a contractual arrangement between an employee and their employer involving a reduction of an employee’s cash pay in return for a BiK, such as a phone or a car. For some BiKs the value used for calculating tax and NICs liability is less than the amount of the cash pay forgone, allowing the employee and employer to choose to pay less tax and NICs than they would otherwise. The measure will fix the taxable value of those BiKs provided through salary sacrifice at the higher of the amount of cash forgone or the amount calculated under the existing BiK rules.

There will be no change to the tax and NICs advantages of salary sacrifice arrangements for:pension saving into a registered pension scheme, employer provided pensions advice, employer-supported childcare, cycle to work schemes or Ultra Low Emission Cars (ULEVs). Further, those already in contracts for BiKs involving salary sacrifice will be protected for the length of that contract, subject to final backstop dates.

You can find more detailed information here

Rules for Charity Meetings

Your charity’s governing document should say how and when you should organise meetings and how to vote on decisions. You must do these things exactly as the governing document says. If you don’t, any decision you make during a meeting could be invalid.

If your governing document isn’t clear about meetings, you should think about adding to it (or agreeing extra rules). For example:

who can attend the meetings (most meetings are just for the trustees)
how often and when you should hold meetings
the minimum number that must attend a meeting so that decisions can be made properly (called the quorum)
how you deal with charity trustees who have a conflict of interest

Having the right rules in place for meetings will help you to make decisions effectively, manage conflicts of interest appropriately and deal with problems.

Making Changes to the Objects of your Charity

Your charity’s objects or purposes, and the rules for how it should operate are set out in its Governing Document.

Only change your governing document if it’s in your charity’s best interest to do so. For example, if:

your charity’s purposes aren’t a practical or appropriate way to meet the need it was set up for any more
your governing document doesn’t say who your charity’s trustees are or how they are appointed
provisions explaining how you must run the charity (for example, how to arrange meetings) are no longer relevant or practical

As trustees, you’ll need to decide that the change is necessary and what it should be. You can make some changes yourself but others need Charity Commission permission.

More detailed information can be found here

Charities and VAT – Energy Charges

This is a complicated issue, but we give a brief overview here

Charities have to pay VAT on supplies of fuel and power. However charities can claim the reduced rate where fuel and power is supplied for a qualifying use. Qualifying use means either:

supplied for use in a dwelling or certain other types of residential accommodation, such as a children’s home, hospice or care home for the elderly or disabled
supplied for use in charitable non-business activities, such as free day care for the disabled

Additionally, deliveries of certain small quantities of fuel and power are automatically treated as being for a qualifying use. For example, electricity supplied at a rate not exceeding 1000 kilowatt hours a month or a delivery of not more than 2300 litres of gas oil, will qualify for the reduced rate whatever the use of the building.

If the fuel and power is supplied partly for a qualifying use the supplier may have to apportion the supply. Charities should provide the supplier with a certificate declaring the percentage of the fuel and power that will be used for a qualifying purpose.

You can find more detailed information here

Happy New Year – 2017

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

Our office is now fully open following the Christmas break, and we are offering our full range of services to you.

Coming up in March we have several training courses which may be of interest to you, including sessions on Financial Management, Employment Law, Business Planning and Budgeting and Cashflow. All courses run from 09:45 – 12:30 at the Derby Bosnian Centre DE1 1LN

Season’s Greetings

Wishing all of you a joyous Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

The DCAS office will be closed from 5pm on Friday 23rd December 2016, and will re-open at 9am on Wednesday 4th January 2017

Paying employers’ PAYE by post

We have recently had a query asking whether or not it is still possible to pay bills to HMRC by cheque sent by post.

This information from the Government website, https://www.gov.uk/pay-paye-tax/by-post dated 7th December 2016 confirms that payments can still be made by cheque made payable to HM Revenue and Customs only, followed by your 13-character Accounts Office reference number. You can find this on the letter HMRC sent you when you first registered as an employer. You must also include the payslip for the correct period, and send to this address

HMRC
Direct
BX5 5BD

If you pay by cheque through the post the deadline is the 19th of the month.