Change your charity’s financial year
Find out how to change your charity’s financial year (or financial period).
You cannot change your charity’s financial year or period if your latest annual return and accounts (if required) are overdue.
To sign in and change your financial year you will need to have set up a Charity Commission Account.
Read the privacy notice before you use the service.
Rules for charities that are not companies
If your charity is a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) or unincorporated (not a company) you can change the financial year or period to run for more or less than 12 months.
It needs to be a minimum of 6 months, and no longer than 18 months.
You can only:
- change the dates for your current financial year
- make a change once every 3 years
Changing your financial year or period will also change your deadline for filing the annual return and accounts.
Rules for charities that are companies
If your charity is incorporated (a company) you can shorten your financial year or period as often as you’d like.
The minimum period you can shorten it to is 1 day.
You can lengthen your company’s financial year to a maximum of 18 months, but this can only be done once every 5 financial periods.
Rules for newly registered charities
If your charity is newly registered, and you have not submitted an annual return you will need to request permission to change your financial year.
Use our enquiry form to request permission.
Last updated 10 December 2018 + show all updates
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Information added for newly registered charities who want to change their financial year or period.
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First published.