2019 – Some things coming our way?
Insight
2018 has been a busy year for many of us, with serious incident reporting coming centre stage, and the GDPR / Data Protection Act 2018 taking up much of our time.
And it looks as though 2019 will bring a raft of its own changes, challenges, guidance and developments, such as:
- A new Charity Code of Ethics. NCVO's draft is here and the Commission's response is here:
- A revised Code of Fundraising Practice from the Fundraising Regulator.
- Revised guidance from the Charity Commission on charities that are connected with non-charitable organisations (following a bruising consultation response):
- Potential Charity Commission guidance on the duties of members of charitable companies following the Children's Investment Fund Foundation case. This would be particularly welcome, given that the Court of Appeal's judgment left many questions unanswered.
- A review of Scottish charity legislation (which cross-border charities will need to watch out for).
- A possible Charity Commission consultation on introducing charging.
- DFID's informal consultation on revising safeguarding standards.
- The increase of the maximum small trades exemption threshold from £50,000 to £80,000 (effective April 2019, provided that Parliament has the time to get the Finance (no. 3) Bill passed).
- The increase of the maximum donation threshold for the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme from £20 to £30 (intended to take effect from April 2019, subject to the availability of Parliamentary time – which could be challenging!).
- An increase in probate fees, with no exemption where legacies are left to charity, potentially having a detrimental impact on legacy income (April 2019).
- A report from the NCVO Tax Commission expected in Spring 2019.
We very much look forward to helping our clients with all of this, and more, in the new year.
