Charitable companies – what accounts format to use
With the changes introduced in financial reporting for companies in recent years, we have seen a number of cases where charitable companies have submitted the wrong form of accounts to us so we thought it would be good to remind charity trustees and those working with charitable companies of what the requirements are.
Charitable companies must prepare accounts in line with the requirements of the Charities SORP (FRS 102), including Update Bulletin 1. There are additional requirements within the SORP if the charity has income of £500,000 or more. A copy of the full accounts must be submitted both to Companies House and to us.
Charitable companies are not eligible to opt in to the micro-entity regime. They are specifically excluded from it under the legislation which introduced the regime – The Small Companies (Micro-Entities’ Accounts) Regulations 2013.
Micro entity accounts are not a replacement for abbreviated accounts and are not prepared in addition to full accounts – the format and content is quite different. Companies must fully opt in to the micro-entity regime if they are eligible to do so.
In addition the legislation which introduced abridged accounts, The Companies, Partnership and Groups (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2015, also specifically excludes charitable companies. So, abridged accounts are also not an option for charitable companies.