Consultation outcome

Charities: audit and independent examination

• From: Cabinet Office
• Published: 9 December 2014
• Last updated: 19 February 2015 — See all updates

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Government response to the consultation on charity audit and independent examination

PDF, 164 KB, 14 pages

Detail of outcome

The government has responded to feedback from the consultation. We plan to pursue proposals that include increasing the following thresholds from £500,000 to £1 million:

• income threshold at which a charity should have its accounts audited
• aggregate group income threshold at which parent charities should have group accounts audited
• preparation threshold for group accounts

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Original consultation

Summary

This consultation looks at recommendations to increase financial thresholds determining whether charity accounts must be audited or examined.

This consultation ran from
9 December 2014 to 5pm on 27 January 2015

Consultation description

Lord Hodgson reviewed the Charities act 2006 in 2012. One of his recommendations was to increase the financial thresholds above which charities must have their accounts audited rather than independently examined.

Currently, charities that fall into either of the following categories must have their annual accounts audited by a member of the Register of Statutory Auditors:

• an annual income of more than £500,000
• assets worth more than £3.26 million and an annual income of more than £250,000

The government is proposing to increase these thresholds to:

• an annual income of more than £1 million
• assets worth more than £3.26 million and an annual income of more than £500,000

We are also consulting on increasing the threshold above which charities must prepare group accounts from a total income of £500,000 to £1 million.

These proposals would make up to 4,000 charities exempt from the expensive requirement for a full audit but still keep an appropriate amount of scrutiny.

We also want to know whether we could extend the list of professional accountancy membership bodies able to carry out independent examinations for charities with an income of over £250,000.

Documents

Charity audit and independent examination

PDF, 171 KB, 14 pages

Impact Assessment: Raising the Charity Audit Threshold

PDF, 211 KB, 9 pages

Published 9 December 2014
Last updated 19 February 2015 + show all updates

1. 19 February 2015

   Government response published.

2. 10 December 2014

   Added impact assessment document.

3. 9 December 2014

   First published.