Don’t be late! Submit your annual information to OSCR
Every charity registered in Scotland has to provide annual information by sending us a statement of accounts, a trustees’ annual report and an external scrutiny report. In addition to these legal requirements, we also ask charities to complete an online annual return.
The deadline for a charity to send us this information is 9 months after its financial ‘year end’ date. For example, if your charity has a financial year end date of 31 March 2018 you need to submit the required documents to OSCR by 31 December 2018.*
We use the information to update each charity’s entry on the Scottish Charity Register. A charity’s register entry will highlight when they have failed to provide us with the information on time. Anyone, such as funders or members of the public, will be able to see that the annual information has not been submitted.
The closer you leave it to the 9 month deadline date the more likely you are to be late! Not submitting in time is risky for the charity’s reputation, and we will consider action against the charity trustees if annual information is not submitted. Remember, it is the collective responsibility of every charity trustee to make sure that we get these documents.
Submitting the information is straightforward:
- Log in to OSCR Online
- Click on the link to complete an online annual return
- Answer the questions in the return and attach the annual report and accounts (including the independent examiners or audit report) when asked.
There is guidance on completing an online annual return available on our website to help you complete one correctly. Don’t worry if you cannot scan in some of your documents, there is an option to subsequently post us any documents you cannot attach electronically when you complete the online annual return.
For further advice or help, please contact a Third Sector Interface (TSI). You can find your local TSI here.
* If your deadline is between 31 December and 07 January and you are posting paper documentation, we need to have the documents with us by 21 December at the latest - otherwise it will be difficult for us to process them all before New Year. However, if you are completing an annual return in OSCR Online and attaching the required documents at the same time, you have your full 9 months to complete the process.