New questions in the 2018 and 2019 charity annual return service
Information about new questions in the 2018 and 2019 annual return service, and why we are asking them.
If you submitted your latest annual return before 12 November 2018, the next time you log in to this service you will be asked to check and update all your charity details. Find out what you need to do.
The 2018 and 2019 annual return includes new questions which you can view before you log in.
Certain questions will be optional in 2018, but compulsory in 2019.
If you are submitting your annual return for the first time, or you are not sure what you need to include, read guidance about how to prepare and submit your annual return.
Why we are asking about salaries and benefits in charities
Our research into public trust and confidence in charities shows that the public is concerned about high levels of pay in charities.
Because of this we will be asking charities to provide more information about salaries to increase accountability.
We will ask for a breakdown of salaries across income bands, and the amount of total employee benefits for the highest paid member of staff.
But, in response to concerns raised during our public consultation, we will not publish details of benefits given to the paid member of staff on the charity register.
Why we are asking about overseas expenditure
We will build on the current annual return questions about charitable expenditure overseas, to establish how charities transfer and monitor funds sent overseas.
We are doing this because all money transfer processes bear risks, and it’s important that charities take appropriate steps to manage these.
We recognise that some charities will need to make changes to their record keeping to answer parts of this question. For this reason the questions about methods of transferring money outside the regulated banking system, and about monitoring controls and risk management, will be optional for the 2018 annual return.
These questions will be mandatory for the annual return 2019 onwards.
Why we are asking about income from outside the UK
To get a better understanding of the income sources from outside of the UK, we are introducing questions about the breakdown of sources of income from each country a charity receives funds from.
The options we’ve provided for you to choose from are:
- overseas governments or quasi government bodies
- overseas charities, non-governmental organisations or non-profit organisations (NGOs/NPOs)
- other overseas institutions (for example private company donations)
- individual donors resident overseas
- unknown
Some charities will need to make changes to their financial systems to collect and sort the information more easily.
For this reason, we have made those parts of the question set relating to other private institutions outside the UK (other than charities, Non-Governmental Organisations and Non-Profit Organisations) and individual donors outside the UK optional to answer for the 2018 annual return.
These questions will be mandatory from 2019 onwards.
Updates to this page
Last updated 24 October 2018 + show all updates
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The deadline for submitting the 2017 annual return is in one week (31 October 2018).
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Added information about the annual return deadline for 2017.
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The 2018 annual return service is now available.
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We have added all the questions that will be asked in the 2018 annual return.
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We have added the salary and benefits questions that will be asked in the 2018 annual return.
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Added the questions about overseas expenditure that will be asked in the 2018 annual return.
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First published.