Church Relevant Updates

Pension Updates and Bulletins

Auto-enrolment begins in October 2012 for the larger employers, but smaller employers will need to follow suit over the next few years.

Download: Pensions Bulletin Spring 2012

Gift Aid Declarations

Partly as a result of the budget H. M. Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have made a series of important announcements which need to be acted upon by all Gift Aid administrators.

The wording of the Gift Aid declaration has been changed. In particular it clarifies the section confirming that the donor has paid sufficient tax. HMRC want all new declarations to adopt this wording, but recognise that for example some organisations have stocks of pre-printed declarations so will accept these until 31st December 2012. For more information go to downloads.

Download: Gift Aid Declarations

Download: The Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS) Consultation

Download: Gift Aid 2012 What you need to do

Download: The Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme

HMRC Six-Year Rule

The HMRC has announced that during a recent review an error has been identified in the guidance on keeping records. In the guidance it stated that the four-year time limit for claiming on donations also applied to the retention of keeping records. However this is incorrect and all records need to be kept for at least six years.

On their website they have issued an apology for this error and acknowledge that Charities may have already destroyed records over four-years old. If this applies to your charity, then there is no reason to worry. The HMRC has stated that they will not penalise any charities that have destroyed records based on this guidance, if they do not have the full six years' worth of records, when asked to see them.

From this point onwards any records that have not been destroyed for between four and six years, need to be retained for the full six-year retention period. You can view this information directly from the HMRC's website.

Charities Act 2011

The updated charities act - the Charities Act 2011 - came into effect earlier this month. It replaces most of the Charities Act 1992, 1993, 2006 and all of the Recreational Charities Act 1958.

There are no changes to the law; this new act is simply intended to make the law easier to understand by replacing the four previous Acts of Parliament with one.

Your charity will not need to do anything differently except refer to the Charities Act 2011 in documents, reports, accounts or statements produced on or after 14th March 2012 (even if they relate to a previous financial period).

Documents which do accidentally refer to previous Acts will still be valid and you do not have to go back and change any documents that have already been finalised before 14 March 2012.

Sharing Agreements

The Finance Officer is the responsible person in the office for dealing with Sharing Agreements. Fortunately, the Moderator also has experience of the complexities of Sharing Agreements as does the Synod Ecumenical officer.

It is important to recognise that a Sharing Agreement under the Sharing of Church Buildings Act 1969 is only one of the ways in which buildings can be shared. Other approaches may, in any given circumstance, be more appropriate.

Sharing Agreements do not create ‘unified’ churches. In some cases a Sharing Agreement may be seen simply as a necessary step to enable non-URC weddings to take place in an URC church. That may be all that is looked for. One the other hand proximity- rather than absence- can sometimes make the heart grow fonder. Opportunities for growing together in congregational life and witness will often present themselves. Churches who thought that their own life would continue as normal may discover that there is much more that can be shared besides a building.

If you wish to consider entering into a Sharing Agreement, please notify the Moderator in the first instance or alternatively the Finance Officer. Please recognise that the legal document will need to be drawn up by Cobbetts and this will incur a legal fee which will need to be paid by the Church concerned.

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Governance for faith based charities

The Charity Commission has published a new guide to governance for faith-based charities to help them establish strong trustee bodies and good practice. The guide, Faith in Good Governance, was launched to coincide with National Inter Faith Week (15-21 November 2009).

The publication is aimed at the trustees, staff and volunteers of those charities established with a religious purpose whose main focus is religious worship and related activities. It brings together into one document aspects of the legal and good practice framework which are most likely to be of relevance to faith-based charities. The guidance is aimed predominantly at smaller or newer charities whose main focus is operating a place of worship.

Website: Charity Commission