Exempt charity meaning

Trustees Verify who the present charity trustees are. Examine historic appointment and retirement deeds to validate earlier changes to the board. Consider whether any current trustees have obvious conflicts of interest. Trust instrument Review the trust instrument and identify the powers it grants. Record any express limits on exercising those powers. Note whether any of the charity’s land is functional, designated, or held in specie. Land and leases Identify the charity’s property holdings and carry out the following checks: Confirm that title to all land is current, checking whether required deeds or transfers were executed after trustee changes, or reliance is placed on statutory vesting; verify proper execution of all documents. Confirm that appropriate restrictions have been entered on the title register. Confirm, so far as possible, that the land was duly authorised on acquisition, and review every lease where the charity is landlord or tenant; note any onerous obligations, and check whether required notices were served after...

Refer to the Q&A: Which options are open to an individual who aims to pass their residuary estate, in a tax‑efficient manner, on trust for a spouse for life, followed by a flexible charitable benefit with the trustees choosing the charitable recipients? Would the estate qualify for the residence nil rate band? Charitable Will trusts Practice Note: Will drafting—gifts to charities, particularly the section entitled ‘Charitable Will trusts’, explores ways in which a person may place assets on trust for charity. Although charitable trusts are, in principle, treated as relevant property for IHT, legislation intervenes to exempt property held solely for charitable purposes, whether for a limited period or otherwise...

Sarabande v HMRC [2025] UKFTT 93 (TC) SB, a registered charity, holds a long lease of a central London property (the Building). Suture Inc Ltd (SIL), SB’s wholly owned subsidiary, is not VAT-registered. In 2018, SB opted for voluntary VAT registration and sought to recover £341,487.31 of VAT incurred on purchasing and refurbishing the Building. The project transformed what had been a warehouse-style area into art studios, gallery space and meeting rooms. SB’s objective was to create a venue to nurture an artists’ community, and it devised a structured support scheme for artists called the ‘Accelerator Programme’. Through this programme, artists were offered curated, subsidised space, comprising studio and exhibition areas together with a bundle of benefits, including use of professional equipment, guidance from sector specialists and hands-on assistance from as well as advice from industry experts and practical support offered by SB within the Building to participants in the scheme on a structured basis throughout...

In this issue: Wills Court of Protection UK taxes for Private Client HMRC Manuals updates Tax avoidance, evasion and non-compliance Budgets and Finance Bills Contentious trusts and estates Pensions, insurance and tax efficient investments International Question of the week Additional Private Client updates this week Daily and weekly news alerts LexTalk®Private Client: a Lexis+® community New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Wills Llamas, legacies, and legalities—does a gift in a Will fail if the charity ceases to exist? (British Camelids Ltd v Brooke Hospital for Animals) Animal-loving conservationist Candia Midworth, who kept llamas on her Surrey farm, directed that her £1.9m estate be shared equally among a number of animal charities. By the date of her death on 8 April 2022, some of those charities had either passed their functions to successor bodies or disappeared entirely. British Camelids Ltd, as claimants,...

ARCHIVED: This archived Practice Note, which reviews the tax measures introduced by the government in response to the coronavirus pandemic and other tax steps of particular relevance, is not updated and is provided for background information only The government introduced a series of measures in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, either specific to the UK tax regime or administered by HMRC. HMRC also published a business support finder tool to help businesses and the self-employed swiftly identify what financial assistance was available. See: Find coronavirus support for your business. For ease of use, this Practice Note is divided into: EMPLOYMENT SELF-EMPLOYMENT TRADING LOSSES VAT STAMP TAXES INTERNATIONAL TAXES MANAGEMENT AND LITIGATION INCENTIVISED INVESTMENT EMPLOYMENT Coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS)—CLOSED The coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) offered support to employers with a UK payroll by way of a grant to help meet salary costs for ‘furloughed’ employees during the pandemic. The initial iteration...

The Higher Education and Research Act 2017 (HERA 2017) marks arguably the most far-reaching statutory shift in scope and effect for UK higher education since 2004. Under HERA 2017, Pt 1, a fresh regulator for higher education (HE) in England, the Office for Students (OfS), is created, alongside arrangements for a new register of providers across the system. Further particulars on the OfS’s constitution and functioning are set out in HERA 2017, Sch 1. HERA 2017, Pt 2 addresses additional education matters, such as student finance, complaints, and the deregulation of HE corporations in England. HERA 2017, Pt 3 deals with research, forming UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and defining the research and innovation roles of the councils. Expanded legislative detail is provided in HERA 2017, Sch 9. HERA 2017, Pt 4 attends to general provisions, including co-operation and information sharing between the OfS and UKRI, transitional steps, and pre-commencement consultation. Establishment of the OfS The OfS is a statutory corporate body created by statute. It is not...

One of the Charity Commission’s core statutory roles, as the regulator of charities, is to identify and examine suspected misconduct or mismanagement in the running of charities, and to take corrective or protective measures. This remit extends to: all charities in England and Wales, whether or not registered with the Commission; and all funds raised for charitable purposes in England and Wales, even where the money is not raised by a charity (for example, fundraising appeals run by newspapers, broadcasters or other voluntary organisations in response to a natural disaster or famine) The Commission carries out this function: in serious matters, by opening a formal statutory ‘section 46’ inquiry; or in non-serious matters, by exercising its general regulatory powers The approach taken is determined by the Commission’s published Risk Framework tool. In Part 5 of the Charities Act 2011 (CA 2011) these are described as ‘information powers’. Section 46 inquiries The Commission has...

Registration at the Charity Commission (CC) Most entities with a charitable character must register with the Charity Commission (CC), though some are exempt in specific cases. For further detailed guidance, see Practice Notes: Charity creation—legal points at Charity creation—legal points—Charity registration and Charity registration—when to register...