Charities Act 1994 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 5 · Charity Accounts, Reports and Returns
12. Financial statements
Feedback & supportLast amended by an amending law of 2022. 3 amendments in all.
The Minister may make regulations relating to the financial reporting requirements for charities, including provisions —
allowing the governing board members of specified classes of charities to prepare a receipts and payments account and a statement of assets and liabilities instead of financial statements in respect of any financial year of the charity;
prescribing requirements as to the form and contents of accounts and statements of charities;
requiring the accounts and statements of specified classes of charities to be in compliance with all or any of the following:
specified accounting standards that are made or formulated by the Accounting Standards Committee under Part 3 of the Accounting Standards Act 2007;
other accounting standards or requirements specified in the regulations;
providing for relief from the requirements of such accounting standards applicable to charities;
determining the financial years of a charity for the purposes of this Act;
modifying the application of any provisions in the Companies Act 1967 as to the form and content of a company’s accounts or consolidated accounts being in compliance with the Accounting Standards (as defined in the Companies Act 1967) in respect of a company that is registered as a charity or approved as an institution of a public character under this Act; or
providing that any person who is guilty of an offence under any regulations made under paragraph (c) in respect of a charity which is registered as a company under the Companies Act 1967 shall be liable on conviction to the same penalty as that provided under section 204(1) or (3)(a) (as the case may be) of that Act.
Subject to subsection (3), the governing board members of a charity must preserve any financial statement or other accounts and statements prepared by them for the purposes of regulations made under this section, for at least 5 years after the end of the financial year to which the financial statement or accounts and statements (as the case may be) relate.
governing board members
“governing board members” means members of the governing body of a charity or trustees for a charity having the general control and management of the administration of the charity;
Where a charity ceases to exist before the end of the minimum period in subsection (2) for preserving financial statements or other accounts and statements in respect of the charity —
charity
“charity” means any institution, corporate or not, which is established for charitable purposes and is subject to the control of the General Division of the High Court in exercise of the jurisdiction of the General Division of the High Court with respect to charities;
the last governing board members of the charity; or
any one or more of the last governing board members of the charity, as may be agreed by the last governing board members,must preserve the financial statements or other accounts and statements to the end of that period, unless the Commissioner allows the financial statements or other accounts and statements (as the case may be) to be earlier destroyed or otherwise disposed of.
Subsection (3) also applies to a charity that ceases to exist before 1 April 2018, if the minimum period in subsection (2) as it applies to any financial statement or other accounts and statements of the charity has not ended on that date.[13