What are the charity accounting thresholds?

Applies in: England and Wales · Scotland · Northern Ireland

The three jurisdictions have different figures, different tests and different effective dates. They are separated below, not blended.

Why a threshold change is not a switchover

The most common mistake with the charity accounting thresholds is to treat a change as a switchover. That means old rules until a date, new rules after it. Each nation has its own figures, applied by its own regulator: the Charity Commission, OSCR or the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. The England and Wales change is not drafted as a switchover, and the order says so in terms:

“The amendments made by articles 3(3) to (5) and 4 do not apply in relation to any financial year of a charity ending before 30th September 2026.”

— SI 2026/427 art.5(6)

So a charity with a 31 March 2026 year end uses the old audit threshold. A charity with a 30 September 2026 year end uses the new one. Both do so on the same day, under the same Act. Two charities can be right about two different figures.

Each figure below that is mid-transition shows both values and the test that picks each one. Do not take one side of a transition and quote it as “the threshold”.

Scotland moved separately and earlier, by its own instrument, and on the opposite basis: financial years beginning on or after a date. Northern Ireland did not move at all.

What does gross income mean?

Every income threshold on this page is tested against gross income. Gross income is a charity’s gross recorded income from all sources, including special trusts: the England and Wales definition in Charities Act 2011 s.353(1). It is not the total income line on the face of your statement of financial activities.

For Scotland the definition is in the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 reg 1(2), as substituted by SSI 2010/287. It differs in ways that matter, and it sits in regulations, not the Act. The Northern Irish statutory definition is word for word the same as the England and Wales one.

Three rules govern how the tests are applied, and all three surprise people:

• Income is not annualised. A period that is not twelve months is tested on what it was. Sections 144–145 test gross income “in that year”, and nothing in the Act or the 2008 Regulations pro-rates it.
• Each year stands alone. The Charities Act scrutiny test looks at a single financial year in isolation (ss.144–145). One large legacy can require an audit for one year, after which the charity reverts.
• There is no “two preceding years” test. The repealed Charities Act 1993 had one, and it used gross income or total expenditure. It is gone: Charities Act 1993 s.43(1) as enacted was repealed, and Charities Act 2011 s.144 carries no such test. Trustees who believe a bad year is smoothed away are exposed.

England and Wales thresholds

Test	Threshold	Provision
Receipts and payments accounts available up to	£250,000 for financial years ending before 30 September 2026; £500,000 for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026	Charities Act 2011 s.133, as amended by SI 2026/427 art.3(3)
Accruals accounts required above (non-company charities)	£250,000 for financial years ending before 30 September 2026; £500,000 for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026	ss.132–133, as amended by art.3(3)
No external scrutiny required at or below	£25,000 for financial years ending before 30 September 2026; £40,000 for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026	s.145(1), as amended by art.3(5)(a)
Professionally qualified independent examiner required above	£250,000 for financial years ending before 30 September 2026; £500,000 for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026	s.145(3), as amended by art.3(5)(b)
Audit required — gross income above	£1,000,000 for financial years ending before 30 September 2026; £1,500,000 for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026	s.144(1)(a), as amended by art.3(4)(a)
Audit required — assets above	£3,260,000 for financial years ending before 30 September 2026; £5,000,000 for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026	s.144(1)(b), as amended by art.3(4)(b)
and gross income above (the condition attached to the asset test)	£250,000 for financial years ending before 30 September 2026; £500,000 for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026	s.144(1)(b) read with s.133
Group accounts required — aggregate group income above	£1,000,000 for financial years ending before 30 September 2026; £1,500,000 for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026	s.139(2) and SI 2015/322 reg 2, as amended by art.4(2)
Group accounts must be audited — aggregate group income above	£1,000,000 for financial years ending before 30 September 2026; £1,500,000 for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026	s.151(1)(a) and SI 2015/322 reg 4, as amended by art.4(3)

The asset test is not an asset test on its own. Almost every published summary of the 2026 changes gets this wrong. That includes the Charity Commission’s own summary table, which lists the income and asset figures side by side and leaves out the condition.

Section 144(1)(b) bites only where both limbs are met. The charity’s gross income exceeds the accounts threshold, and the total value of its assets exceeds the asset figure.

The subsection defines “the accounts threshold” as “the sum for the time being specified in section 133”. So that income condition moved when s.133 moved. It moved silently, through a cross-reference, with no amendment saying so.

The income condition is £250,000 for financial years ending before 30 September 2026; £500,000 for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026. A charity with a lot of property and modest income is often told it needs an audit when it does not.

Two further points on this table. First, the revised text of ss.133, 144 and 145 on legislation.gov.uk still shows the pre-2026 sums as “changes yet to be applied”. Anyone checking the section alone reads the old figures. Always read SI 2026/427 arts.3 and 5(6) alongside the section.

Second, a charitable company never has the receipts and payments option, however small it is. Its audit position runs through Charities Act 2011 s.147(1). The two regimes apply in turn, not together. Being exempt from a Companies Act audit switches the Charities Act regime back on.

Scotland thresholds

Scotland changed its figures by its own instrument, SSI 2025/341. It was made in November 2025 and in force from 1 January 2026, five months before the England and Wales order.

It applies to financial years beginning on or after that date. That is the opposite of the England and Wales basis, which looks at when the year ends. Scotland did not follow the England and Wales rise in the asset figure.

Test	Threshold	Provision
Receipts and payments accounts available below	£250,000	SSI 2006/218 reg 9(1)
Accruals accounts required at or above	£250,000	SSI 2006/218 reg 8(1)
No external scrutiny required below	No such threshold — every charity’s accounts must be examined or audited, from the first pound	Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 s.44(1)(c)
Independent examination available below	£500,000 for financial years beginning before 1 January 2026; £1,000,000 for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2026	SSI 2006/218 reg 11(1), as amended by SSI 2025/341 reg 3(6)(a)
Professionally qualified examiner — trigger	Not an income figure: required whenever accruals accounts are prepared under reg 8, whether by obligation or by choice	SSI 2006/218 reg 11(2)
Audit required — gross income at or above	£500,000 for financial years beginning before 1 January 2026; £1,000,000 for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2026	SSI 2006/218 reg 10(1)(a), as amended by SSI 2025/341 reg 3(5)(a)
Audit required — assets above (accruals accounts only)	£3,260,000	SSI 2006/218 reg 10(1)(b)
Consolidated accounts required at or above	£500,000 for financial years beginning before 1 January 2026; £1,000,000 for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2026	SSI 2006/218 reg 6(1), as amended by SSI 2025/341 reg 3(4)

There is no scrutiny floor in Scotland. Every registered Scottish charity must have its accounts examined or audited, at every income level, from the first pound. Section 44(1)(c) of the 2005 Act has no exceptions.

This is the opposite of how the 2026 changes were reported. “England relaxed the rules” is a statement about England. The change made the gap between the nations wider than it has ever been.

Scotland also has a statutory audit trigger that England and Wales does not. Under SSI 2006/218 reg 10(1)(c), an audit is required if one of these calls for it:

• the charity’s constitution
• another enactment
• a decision of the trustees

In England and Wales an audit clause in the constitution binds the trustees under trust law, but not under statute.

A warning on every Scottish figure. There is no consolidated text of SSI 2006/218. The version on legislation.gov.uk shows old, as-made wording. You have to build the current figures from the 2006 Regulations plus SSI 2010/287 plus SSI 2025/341. Cite the amending instrument, never the 2006 page alone.

Northern Ireland thresholds

Test	Threshold	Provision
Receipts and payments accounts available at or below	£250,000	Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 s.64(3)
Accruals accounts required above	£250,000	s.64(1) read with s.64(3)
No external scrutiny required below	No such threshold — the trustees’ election under s.65(3) is between examination and audit, not between scrutiny and none	s.65(3)
Professionally qualified examiner required above	£250,000	s.65(4)
Audit required — gross income above	£500,000	s.65(1)
Audit required — assets	No such threshold — the s.65(1) trigger is income only	s.65 contains no asset test
Group accounts required — aggregate group income above	£500,000	Sch.6 para 4(2); SR 2015/384 reg 16

Two gaps matter here. Northern Ireland has no asset-based audit test at all. The section was read in full and no asset limb appears anywhere in it.

Like Scotland, Northern Ireland has no scrutiny floor. Section 65(3) requires the accounts to be either examined or audited, as the trustees choose, at every income level. Northern Ireland’s audit income trigger is also the lowest of the three nations.

If you are appointing an examiner, note one difference in wording. Northern Ireland requires a full member of the Association of Charity Independent Examiners. England and Wales requires a Fellow.

The thresholds that are not statutory thresholds

Two sets of figures sit alongside the statutory ones and are constantly confused with them.

The SORP tiers. £500,000 is the Tier 1 ceiling and £15,000,000 the Tier 2 ceiling. These are not law in themselves. They apply only to a charity preparing accruals accounts: receipts and payments accounts are outside the SORP. The SORP requires the tier to be assessed each year, on gross income alone.

The tiers apply on a different basis again: reporting periods beginning on or after the SORP date.

In England and Wales the Tier 1 ceiling now happens to match the accruals boundary and the qualified-examiner threshold. That match does not exist in Scotland or Northern Ireland, and it does not make them one rule. The three bases are:

• the England and Wales thresholds for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026
• the SORP for reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026
• the Scottish thresholds for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2026

The filing threshold. In England and Wales, one income figure triggers the duty to send your accounts and report to the Charity Commission.

How to do it is in file your accounts. It did not move when the scrutiny threshold moved. So there is now a band of charities that must file accounts nobody has to check. Section 163 was left untouched while s.145(1) moved.

The filing trigger is gross income exceeding £25,000 (Charities Act 2011 s.163). At or below it the duty does not disappear. It applies only on request, on a sliding deadline. That deadline can fall later than the ten months a larger charity gets. And the trigger does not apply to a CIO at all — a CIO transmits whatever its income.

Sources

Primary sources only.

1. The Charities Acts 1992 and 2011 (Substitution of Sums) Order 2026 (SI 2026/427) — legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/427/made
2. Charities Act 2011, ss.133, 144, 145, 147 — legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/25/section/144. Note: the 2026 sums are recorded as changes yet to be applied.
3. Charities Act 1993, s.43 (as enacted) — the repealed three-year test — legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1993/10/section/43/enacted
4. The Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (SSI 2006/218), as amended by SSI 2010/287 and SSI 2025/341 — legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2025/341/made
5. Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008, ss.64–65 — legislation.gov.uk/nia/2008/12/section/65
6. Charities SORP 2026, paragraphs 35–39 — charitysorp.org

What to do about it

Do not decide from the table alone. Work through the two determinations in order, and record each with its reasoning, because the record is what an examiner or auditor will ask for:

• Step 12 — Determine which type of accounts you must prepare. Two conditions, not one: your gross income and whether you are a company.
• Step 13 — Determine what external scrutiny you need. This is the determination that carries the risk, and it is the one most often got wrong elsewhere.

If your year end falls either side of a transition, read The 2026 threshold changes: what changed, what did not before you do either.

When these figures change. Every figure here is a substituted sum. It is changed by statutory instrument, not by an Act. For that reason the facts behind them are reviewed at short intervals.

The Government has said it will keep the England and Wales filing threshold under review. It said so “noting the desirability of aligning with other accounting and reporting thresholds in future”. Expect movement. The figures shown here come from the fact record and change when the record changes. The text does not need rewriting when they do.