BULLETIN DECEMBER 2010

For me it's been an interesting and challenging year, with next year already promising to be even more so. I hope that 2011 for you gentle reader will be filled with encouragement, friendship, promise, peace and joy, in all things.

Daryl Martin

COMPANY CHARITIES:
HMRC has changed their system so that a charity completing a Corporation Tax (CT) return has to include an XT Number (used for Gift Aid claims). This is okay if you have previously been issued the number, but if you haven't you have a problem because the CT return, which now has to be completed online, won't be accepted without it. It will affect new company charities and any who haven't yet claimed gift aid. Give Kay a call if you have any problems on any online filings to HMRC, Companies House or the CC. Don't forget that it'll cost you £150 if you don't lodge the CT form in time.

RADIO MICROPHONES:
This might affect charities that use radio mikes. Ofcom decided to clear the 800 MHz band to make way for the next generation of mobile broadband. This means that equipment must be tuned to channel 38, and channel 69 can no longer be used. Funding is available to help with the cost of changing over but only until 31st December 2010 (from Equiniti). Thanks to Stewardship for this one.

DATA PROTECTION BREACHES:
Hertfordshire CC has been fines £100,000 for twice giving out highly sensitive information to the wrong people. Easily enough done in a busy office, but if you haven't assessed the risk in how you store and handle sensitive information you could be vulnerable. Personal data must be processed fairly and lawfully, personal data must not be kept longer than necessary, and appropriate measures must be in place to minimise the risk of data getting into the wrong hands. A company was held to be negligent when a laptop, containing unencrypted information on people who had visited community law centres, was stolen from the employee's home.

HR MATTERS:
The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that an employee who was pregnant was discriminated against when she resigned following office gossip about the identity of the father. (Christmas parties again!) What is and what isn't discrimination is getting more complex. Speak to employees at an early stage of their pregnancy to determine the extent to which they want information in the public domain, or if there are other sensitivities. (Thanks to Russell-Cooke for this one.) We have access to high quality HR support, if needed, to help you navigate through the tricky currents of grievance, discrimination, disciplinary, recruitment etc.

DOES YOUR CHARITY MAKE PAYMENTS OVERSEAS?
Whilst there has always been a legal requirement for trustees to make sure that funds sent overseas are properly expended, the guidelines have always been fairly relaxed. HMRC has now tightened up its own requirements and if a charity makes payments overseas, which it decides are not charitable, the charity could face a tax burden and even lose its charitable status. HMRC now expects you to have adequate knowledge of the overseas organisation, and have made adequate enquiries about what the funds are being used for. Appropriate evidence will need to be available. Clearly much will depend on the size of the payment, and any ongoing commitment, but I recommend that if you do make payments overseas, you review record keeping and accountability. If you have any concerns in this area, send me details. It's something I cover in my training, although I probably need to update my manual sometime.

CIOs:
I did wonder if these would ever see the light of day, but no, the government is pressing on with a view to secondary legislation being introduced next year. There are still issues to be thought through, not least the additional strain on Charity Commission resources at a time of severe cutbacks. My advice is to junk the whole idea, but hey, who am I?

CICs (COMMUNITY INTEREST COMPANIES):
Whilst I'm not persuaded about CIOs, CICs are a different matter. We have set up a number of CICs which we tailor to the different situations and have built up some expertise on the accounting and operational sides. Call us if we can help with an existing CIC or setting up a new one.

CHARITY COMMISSION POLITICALLY BIASED:
So says Lord Pilkington, a Conservative peer. I'm with him on this, though Rosamund McCarthy disagrees, saying that 'the CC might be guilty of procrastination but not of unlawful action'. His arguments though. in a House of Lords debate on the Public Bodies Bill seemed pretty sound to me. Oh, and he goes on to say how wrong it is that political activity should enter into charities. I'm glad people are waking up to the dangers. A growing number of MPs would like to see charities being allowed to support political parties. I can't think of anything more dumb. Resist it. The last thing we want is to see charities dividing on political lines; this shouldn't even be up for discussion. I see the Labour Party had to pay back £15,000 it received from Catz Club, a lottery funded charity. Catz Club which, even when they were found out tried to weasel out of it by saying it was an administrative error and should have gone through the trading subsidiary.
Apart from the smell of money laundering, this too would have been in breach of law!

RNID:
I made a reference to this charity in my October bulletin. Probably not wise to get involved in internecine strife, but I got a message from a signer giving me an overview of what the numerous complaints were about. The reality is that there ought to be 2 organisations (RNID and RNId) the difference is absolutely crucial. If you want to understand the difference; check out Oliver Sack's excellent book 'Seeing Voices'. There are more worlds around us than we could ever dream of and this is one.

DARYL'S BLOG:
I've had some fun with the blogs in November:
Tips on how to avoid losing your job if you are on Facebook;
Help in negotiating your way through the party season;
Honouring one another (a perennial theme) and on being comfortable in your own skin (Pioneer or Settler?);
Sign up if you are interested in receiving these hard won pearls of wisdom.

AND FINALLY...

Some bits of folk wisdom to encourage my readers:

It is during adversity that one can make a big difference. But making a difference is not about being a big hero. It's simply leaving the bathroom a little cleaner than when you came in.

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you have sown (R L Stevenson; thanks Kerry Wood).

Confucius: To put the world right, we must first put the nation right. To put the nation right we must first put the family right. To put the family right we must first cultivate our personal life. We must start with our own heart.

Truth: Truthfulness is the main element of character (Brian Tracy).

Truth indeed alleviates rather than hurts, and will always bear up against falsehood, as oil does above water (Miguel de Cervantes).

When something important is going on, silence is a lie (A M Rosenthal).

What people say, what people do, and what people say they do are entirely different things (Margaret Meade).

I have such a bad memory these days that I am resigned to always having to tell the truth. A lie must be remembered in all its detail. In my experience a man who frequently calls other people liars is often the man who has a problem with lying; it's called projection.