What changes on 30 September 2026?

Applies in: England and Wales · Scotland · Northern Ireland

Three jurisdictions, three answers. The change everyone is talking about extends to England and Wales only.

Why is “from 30 September 2026” the wrong shorthand?

The date is when the order came into force, not the test that tells trustees which figure applies to their accounts. The two are routinely collapsed into one sentence across the sector. These charity threshold changes reach only charities in England and Wales, which the Charity Commission regulates. Charities regulated by OSCR or the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland are outside them.

The application rule is separate, and it is expressed as a negative:

“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)

Expressed positively: the new sums apply to financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026. Read it against your own year end and nothing else. A charity that closes its books on 31 December 2026 gets the new figures. A charity that closed them on 31 August 2026 does not, even though it will be filing those accounts well into 2027.

Both values stay live side by side for about a year. That is why every figure on this site shows both values and the test that picks each one. If you find a source that gives you one number, it has answered a question you did not ask.

What moved in England and Wales

Test	Old and new, with the condition that selects each
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
Accruals accounts required above	£250,000 for financial years ending before 30 September 2026; £500,000 for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026
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
Professionally qualified 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
Audit — 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
Audit — 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
Audit — the income 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
Group accounts required 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
Group accounts must be audited 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

The instrument extends to England and Wales only. It reaches no charity registered in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

The biggest effect is on the accounts basis. The Government’s own estimate is that over five thousand more non-company charities in England and Wales can now opt out of accruals accounting. This is an option, not an instruction. A charity may prefer to stay on accruals to keep its accounts comparable, or for a funder, and it may.

The audit asset test’s income condition, which moved silently

The audit asset test has an income condition attached to it, and that condition moved too.

Section 144(1)(b) does not say “audit if assets exceed the asset figure”. It sets two conditions. The charity’s gross income “exceeds the accounts threshold and at the end of the year the aggregate value of its assets (before deduction of liabilities) exceeds” the asset figure.

The same subsection then provides that “‘the accounts threshold’ means the sum for the time being specified in section 133”. The cross-reference moves with that section. SI 2026/427 raised the s.133 sum. So the income condition rose with it, automatically, without a word of amendment naming it.

So the income condition is now £250,000 for financial years ending before 30 September 2026; £500,000 for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026.

SI 2026/427 never says this happened. The Charity Commission’s own summary table of the changes leaves out the condition entirely. It lists the income and asset figures side by side as though they were alternatives.

Almost all later coverage has copied that table. As a result, charities with a lot of property and modest income are told they need a full statutory audit. The statute does not require one.

What did not move: the filing threshold

Twenty-one thresholds were consulted on; nine were retained. The one that matters most here is the filing threshold in s.163. Above that gross income figure, you must send your annual report and accounts to the Commission (see file your accounts). It did not move. The scrutiny floor in s.145(1) did.

The result is a band of charities that must file accounts which, by law, nobody has to examine or audit. The Government said why, on the record:

“The government proposes to retain this threshold … at this point in time. In order to change this threshold, the Charity Commission’s systems would require significant updates, which could not be completed by October 2026 … However, we will keep this threshold under review, noting the desirability of aligning with other accounting and reporting thresholds in future.”

— Consultation on financial thresholds in charity law: government response

So the mismatch comes from an IT limit, not a policy choice. The department has said it intends to revisit it. That band has its own page: The band that files accounts nobody has to check.

What changed in Scotland and Northern Ireland?

Two claims circulate about Scotland and both are wrong. Scotland is not “still on the old figures”, and Scotland did not “follow England”.

SSI 2025/341 was made on 6 November 2025 and came into force on 1 January 2026. That was five months ahead of the England and Wales order, and on OSCR’s own advice. Three differences matter:

• The opposite basis. The Scottish amendments do not apply to accounts covering a financial year beginning before 1 January 2026. Period-beginning, where England and Wales is period-ending. A charity operating in both jurisdictions has to apply two different tests to the same twelve months.
• Scotland did not follow the asset uplift. The Scottish asset threshold is untouched by SSI 2025/341 — it stays at £3,260,000.
• What did move: three figures, in each case for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2026. The audit income trigger moved (from £500,000 to £1,000,000). The examination ceiling moved (from £500,000 to £1,000,000). The consolidated accounts trigger moved (from £500,000 to £1,000,000).

What did not change in Scotland is the thing that most sets it apart. Scotland still has no scrutiny floor at any income (2005 Act s.44(1)(c)). Every registered Scottish charity has its accounts examined or audited, every year, from the first pound.

Northern Ireland did not move at all. No Northern Irish threshold changed in 2026. Two features of the Northern Irish regime cut against the “the rules were relaxed” story:

• there is no scrutiny floor (s.65(3) requires examination or audit at every income level)
• there is no asset-based audit test at all (the s.65(1) trigger is income only)

So, with Scotland, two of the three UK nations require something of every charity at every income. The 2026 changes widened that gap rather than narrowing it.

The new Charities SORP: a third basis

The new Charities SORP arrived in the same year and is discussed in the same breath. But it applies from a different point in time: reporting periods beginning on or after its effective date, 1 January 2026. The statutory thresholds apply to years ending on or after theirs.

So some year ends get the new thresholds while still reporting under the old SORP. The reverse, the new SORP on the old thresholds, can arise only for a reporting period shorter than a full year.

For the year in front of you, check each of these separately:

• whether the new SORP applies
• whether the new statutory thresholds apply
• if you are Scottish, whether the Scottish thresholds apply

The three answers can differ for the same twelve months:

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

No regulator has published a table putting the three side by side. This guide’s year-by-year table is in set your financial year end. What changes in the first year under the new SORP is in transition to the 2026 SORP.

One relief is worth knowing before you get there. The SORP requires only a Tier 3 charity to prepare a statement of cash flows. A middle-tier charity that prepared one under the previous SORP may no longer have to.

One result to watch for. The SORP has a signpost for non-company charities choosing receipts and payments accounts. It quotes the old England and Wales boundary, because the SORP was published before the order was made. That signpost is now out of date for England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland still use the same figure.

Sources

1. The Charities Acts 1992 and 2011 (Substitution of Sums) Order 2026 (SI 2026/427), arts.1, 3, 4, 5(6) — legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/427/made
2. Charities Act 2011, ss.133, 144, 145, 163 — legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/25/section/144
3. Consultation on financial thresholds in charity law: government response — gov.uk
4. The Charities Accounts (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025 (SSI 2025/341), regs 2, 3(4), 3(5)(a), 3(6)(a) — legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2025/341/made
5. Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008, s.65 — legislation.gov.uk/nia/2008/12/section/65
6. Charities SORP 2026, paragraphs 21 and 35 — charitysorp.org

What to do about it

Find your year end first, then work the two determinations for that year:

• Step 12 — Determine which type of accounts you must prepare. Your income may sit between the old and the new ceiling. If so, you may lawfully be on accruals one year and receipts and payments the next, with no change in your circumstances.
• Step 13 — Determine what external scrutiny you need, and record the reasoning.

The complete figures for all three jurisdictions are on The charity accounting thresholds.