Charities: audit and independent examination
Download the full outcome
Detail of outcome
The government has responded to feedback from the consultation. We plan to pursue proposals that include increasing the following thresholds from £500,000 to £1 million:
- income threshold at which a charity should have its accounts audited
- aggregate group income threshold at which parent charities should have group accounts audited
- preparation threshold for group accounts
Original consultation
Consultation description
Lord Hodgson reviewed the Charities act 2006 in 2012. One of his recommendations was to increase the financial thresholds above which charities must have their accounts audited rather than independently examined.
Currently, charities that fall into either of the following categories must have their annual accounts audited by a member of the Register of Statutory Auditors:
- an annual income of more than £500,000
- assets worth more than £3.26 million and an annual income of more than £250,000
The government is proposing to increase these thresholds to:
- an annual income of more than £1 million
- assets worth more than £3.26 million and an annual income of more than £500,000
We are also consulting on increasing the threshold above which charities must prepare group accounts from a total income of £500,000 to £1 million.
These proposals would make up to 4,000 charities exempt from the expensive requirement for a full audit but still keep an appropriate amount of scrutiny.
We also want to know whether we could extend the list of professional accountancy membership bodies able to carry out independent examinations for charities with an income of over £250,000.
Documents
Last updated 19 February 2015 + show all updates
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Government response published.
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Added impact assessment document.
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First published.