Does my small charity have to file anything at all?
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In England and Wales, small charity filing requirements turn on income and structure: a CIO owes an annual return and report whatever its income. Any other charity owes no annual return up to £10,000, and no annual report up to £25,000 unless the Commission asks for one. Being below a threshold is not an exemption. Scotland has no income floor at all.
Do this first
England and Wales: This page sets out the position in full. Scotland: the same duty, but there is no income floor at all — see below. Northern Ireland: not researched for this step; do not read the England and Wales position across.
What decides a small charity’s filing requirements?
Gross income and legal structure together decide what a small charity in England and Wales must file with the Charity Commission. The structure can override the income entirely. Every guide leads with the income figures — the accounting thresholds — which makes the duty look like a single sliding scale. It is not, and the trustees need both answers before they can say what is due.
This page assumes you know the charity’s first period and its dates. If not, work out your financial period and your first-year deadlines first.
Filing requirements by income and structure in England and Wales
The table shows which filings fall due at each income level, for a CIO and for every other structure.
| Gross income | Unincorporated charity or company | CIO |
|---|---|---|
| Up to £10,000 | No annual return. Annual report only if the Commission asks. | Annual return and annual report, both due. |
| Above that, up to £25,000 | Annual return due. Annual report only if the Commission asks. | Annual return and annual report, both due. |
| Above £25,000 | Annual return and annual report, both due. | Annual return and annual report, both due. |
The CIO column is the same all the way down. That is the point of the table.
A new charity has no accounts yet. Until it does, the budget from when you built your first annual budget is the best guide to its row. What the return then asks is set out in the questions the annual return asks.
Does a small CIO have to file everything?
Yes. A CIO owes a full annual report and an annual return whatever its income, because the Charities Act 2011 disapplies both thresholds for CIOs. Assuming the thresholds protect a small CIO is the most consequential mistake in this part of the guide.
The reason it catches people is structural: the carve-outs sit in two different sections, in parentheses, after the figures. Section 163(3) disapplies the annual report threshold for a CIO. Section 169(2), on the annual return, ends with the words “but this subsection does not apply if the charity is constituted as a CIO.” Neither is where you would look if you were reading for the number.
A CIO with almost no income owes both, from its first year, permanently. A CIO that believes otherwise starts accruing defaults immediately and usually finds out only years later.
What does being under the annual report threshold mean?
For the annual report, being below the line does not remove the duty. It turns the duty into a request-triggered one. The Commission can ask, and the deadline then depends on when it asked:
- a request made before the end of month seven gives you 10 months from the end of the financial year
- a request made after that gives you 3 months from the date of the request instead
So take a charity that has never filed a report and receives a request in month nine. It has 3 months from the date of the request to produce one. That is not the comfortable 10 months it may have been assuming.
Whether the accounts need an independent examination is a separate question; see do we need an examination if we are under the threshold.
Scotland: no income floor for filing
Every charity on the Scottish Charity Register files everything, every year, from nothing upwards. What that involves is set out where you complete the OSCR annual return. The Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 s.44 duty carries no income qualification at all. Any English figure you have read is irrelevant to a Scottish charity.
Northern Ireland: not established
This step’s Northern Ireland position was not established. That gap is worth naming rather than guessing past. Income bands apply at the accounts level.
It could not be confirmed against a primary source whether a registration threshold affecting filing is now in force. A proposed threshold was approved and preparatory material was published, but no commencement was traceable at the time of research. If your charity is near the margin in Northern Ireland, ask CCNI directly rather than relying on a figure circulating in the sector.
Recording which duties apply, and why
One paragraph in the minutes: your income for the year, your structure, and the filings that follow from combining the two. It takes a few minutes. It is the document that shows the trustees turned their minds to the question. That is worth having if the answer later turns out to have been wrong.
You now know which filings the charity owes. The next step is to set up your record retention schedule. If an annual report is due, the drafting starts with what the trustees’ annual report has to include.
Common mistake: a small CIO assuming the income thresholds protect it
Every guide leads with the income figures, and the CIO carve-outs sit in parentheses in two different sections. Section 163(3) and section 169(2) both override the thresholds for a CIO. A CIO with almost no income owes a full annual report and an annual return.
Common mistake: reading “under the threshold” as “exempt”
That is how it is universally summarised. Section 163(2) converts the duty into a request-triggered one on a sliding deadline, not an exemption. A request arriving late gives only 3 months from the date of the request, not the 10 months a charity above the trigger gets automatically.
Worked example
Wrenfield Village Hall and Tollgate Youth CIO have identical income and identical activities. Wrenfield is an unincorporated association; Tollgate is a CIO.
Tollgate owes a full annual report within 10 months of its year end, and an annual return. Wrenfield owes an annual return, because its income is above the return threshold, but no annual report unless the Commission asks for one. Same size, same work, same beneficiaries. The duties differ entirely because of a decision about legal form taken at the outset.
What you should have at the end
A written statement of which filings the charity owes this year, and on what basis, minuted.
Recording the basis lets the determination be checked later if the answer is ever questioned. The basis is the income figure and the structure, not just the conclusion. A tool is planned: What must I file? (planned).
Common questions
Yes. Both the report threshold and the return threshold are expressly disapplied for CIOs. Income makes no difference to whether the duty exists — only to how much there is to say.
If you are below the report threshold and not a CIO, then no report has fallen due yet. Keep the accounts in a state where you could produce one. A request made after the end of month seven gives you only 3 months from the date of the request.
The annual report duty is tested year by year on the gross income for that financial year. Cross the line and the report is due for that year, on the ordinary deadline. Drop back below it the year after and you are back to the request-triggered position.
Not quite, and the difference is worth noticing. The return exemption applies where income "does not exceed" its figure, so a charity exactly on it is exempt. The report duty bites where income "exceeds" its figure, so a charity exactly on that one is below the line.