BULLETIN March 2009

INSOLVENCY:
Let’s begin with a really cheerful subject! A charity wrote to us recently asking how they should advise a potential new trustee/director who had asked about personal liability if the charity became insolvent. I prepared some brief notes which will be going into the next edition of our trustees’ manual. E-mail us if you want a copy. It’s generally reassuring, as long as you aren’t careless and neglect your duties.

INCORPORATING YOUR CHARITY:

1. Took a call this week from the chair of a Home-Start charity. They took a decision a while back to incorporate their local charities which are all independent and we have been involved in helping a number of them through this process. Some branches had been waiting for the CIO to come into being. They could have a long wait and best advice is still to get the process of incorporation underway. Even when CIOs do finally arrive we will take a good look at them to see how they work in practise before we start recommending them. I hope to visit this particular Home-Start soon to talk them through the process. Let me know if you too would find a visit helpful.
2. On the same issue I went to a church in London a few days ago to talk about tax issues. I found a strong church growing quickly, planting out. Some great things going on. They had major plans for their building. They weren’t incorporated, and needed to be, urgently. We have had to do 3 fast track incorporations recently for churches about to sign on a building. We don’t mind doing it overnight but it does help if you give us a couple of months to do the job well. There are a lot of misunderstandings about incorporation and how if affects the charity and its trustees. Always happy to come and talk to you and answer your questions.

OVERSEAS VISITORS:
Customs refused entry recently to Don Francisco, a world renowned gospel singer who has been coming over here for 30 years. The Sunday Times ran an article on March 8th headed, ‘US volunteers sent home by Godless Scots’. A very heavy handed approach that doesn’t bode well for our freedom. This 'link' will take you to my source material. I have written before about the need for charities to register as sponsors when they want to take on overseas workers. It seems that this process, with its attendant costs and bureaucratic detail, might be necessary for visitors who are only coming for short periods. Contact us if you need help on this.

GIFT AID:
Stewardship communicated some important information in their latest bulletin Legal Eagle: As you will know gift aid claims can be made up to 6 years after the donation is made. At present charities are able to claim the 3% transitional relief. This has to be made within 2 years or you lose it. Also the 6 year time limit is being reduced to 4 years from next year. If you need help getting up to date, email Janice at our office.

TEARFUND HIT BY COMPENSATION CLAIM:
A young lady was working for Tearfund in Kabul when she fell 25 feet down a well in 2006. She was badly hurt and this month her lawyers filed a High Court claim for damages of £300,000. The lesson? Look at risk, look at safety issues and carry insurance.

PASTORS’ PENSION ARRANGEMENTS:
There is at least one major network of churches that have not put adequate and effective pension arrangements in place for their staff. You then have the situation where staff, including senior ministers, have put a lifetime of service into building their church, and they leave their position with no provision for their old age. Now, this ought not to be. If you are a trustee, please consider your responsibilities. Gets harder the longer you leave it, but it’s never too late. Contact me if you need advice.

FACEBOOK:
Last month I gave a warning about unauthorised sites springing up which could bring you into disrepute. (Get your staff handbook amended to cover this). But there’s a further danger, a trap that young people can fall into. A young lady in her first week wrote about how boring she was finding her new job. Her employer saw it and promptly sacked her. Half the employers sampled in a recent survey checked networking sites before deciding whether to hire. You might be relaxing and sounding off but, take care, what you write is there for all to see. Which takes me onto…

INTERVIEWING FOR STAFF:
Almost half of the employers surveyed had received no formal training in job interviews. A significant number of employers asked inappropriate or even illegal questions. Questions about marital status, plans to have children, age, ethnicity, religious belief and sexual orientation can be illegal and can land you in costly trouble. Faith organisations can make sure within limits that their beliefs are not compromised but, take care, it’s a minefield. The Telegraph reported that a 50 year old woman was alleged to have made £100,000 from serial litigation against companies that allegedly discriminated against her. We regularly sit in on interviews to make sure the interviewer doesn’t cross sensitive boundaries. Nat, our HR specialist, is looking after a growing number of charities by providing training, advice and support.

INTERNET PXXN
Whilst we are on tricky subjects, let’s address the question of internet pxxn. This is possibly one of the biggest dangers we face in the church today. The statistics being thrown out are horrendous even if they are only half true. A church that uses the Freedom in Christ programme found that 80% of the men were affected. I know a business that has had to ‘disinfect’ the computer every time one of their male staff leaves. Your staff handbook should at least have a strong warning against visiting dodgy sites. Another thing you could do is to introduce XR3Watch. My church has brought this in.to good effect. Someone gets a report on any dodgy activity on my pc every 2 weeks. I do the same for a number of others. Keeps temptation away.

EMPLOYEE OWNED CARS:
If an employee is driving on charity business and has an accident, are the trustees at risk? Since 2008, criminal liability can attach to companies and directors where a serious H & S failure results in a fatality. You are now legally responsible for the health and safety of staff when they are behind the wheel. The onus is on you to ensure that correct procedures are followed. The good news is that simple checks and common sense are all that is needed. Make sure your staff are adequately insured and that they have business cover (costs about £25). You need to make sure that their vehicle is properly serviced and MOTd. Keep simple records on this. Cover it in your staff manual. Contact us if you need help. Oh, also you need to see their driver’s licence.

FRIENDLY SOCIETIES:
Historically they have been regulated by the FSA. They don’t really fit there, and many of them would find they would be better served by registering as charities. The process is complicated but we have built up some experience in this area. Contact us if we can help. (Someone very kindly wrote about us: ‘if others are thinking of getting ahead of the current Act by registering on a voluntary basis with the Charity Commission, I cannot recommend Independent Examiners highly enough. They are cheaper and more efficient than (name of top London charity solicitors!) who we started the process with several years ago’.) The Charity Law Association is asking the Charity Commission to allow industrial and provident societies that issue shares to register as charities. The Charity Commission says it won’t allow this, but I know that one of our client charities has share capital and is registered.

AND FINALLY(1)........

This is the story they pulled from the last issue, I’ve worked out how to tell it without it getting binned by your e-mail monitoring service: It’s especially for the men.

The pastor was holding a testimony slot and asked for members to come forward with any answered prayers. Mary came to the platform. ‘I just want to tell you about my husband Bill. He had this car accident and it shattered his scrxtxm. He was in such agony, he couldn’t bear to have me touch it.’ The men in the congregation are visibly squirming. ‘The medics didn’t know what they could do. We prayed about it and the next time we saw the surgeon, he tied it all together with wire so carefully (Careful or not, the men were really squirming now). Now his scrxtxm is as good as new. The minister decided to move on quickly. Are there any other answers to prayer we can hear about? A man walked up and went to the mike. My name is Bill, Mary is my wife. I love her dearly, but I want to say one more time the word is sternum.

Ok, here’s one more and you won’t be able to use this one either next Sunday unless you are Welsh or very linguistic.

On a beautiful summer’s day, two English tourists were driving through Wales. At Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantys they stopped for lunch. One of the tourists asked the waitress, ‘Before we order could you settle an argument for us. Can you pronounce where we are very, very, very slowly?’ The girl leaned over and said, ;Burrr…gurrr…kinggg.’ (The old ones are still the best)