Who has to sign a fit and proper persons declaration?

England and Wales: This page sets out the position in full. Scotland: the same position, with no difference in principle — this is a UK-wide tax test, not a devolved one. Northern Ireland: the same position again, for the same reason.

Who counts as a manager for the fit and proper persons test?

Every manager of the charity signs a fit and proper persons declaration, and managers are a wider group than trustees. The test is HMRC’s, and it works the same way in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The form is easy to mistake for a trustee form. It is not one.

The test is the fourth of the conditions HMRC checks when you apply to HMRC for charity recognition. This page assumes that application is made or about to be.

The statute defines “managers”, word for word:

“‘managers’, in relation to a body of persons or trust, means the persons having the general control and management of the administration of the body or trust.”

HMRC’s own guidance spells out who that reaches in practice:

• trustees of charities
• directors of corporate charities
• directors of corporate trustees
• CASC officials
• anyone else with general control and management over how the charity runs, or how its assets are applied

That last line is the one that catches people out. A paid member of staff can be a manager for this test. It does not matter whether they sit on the board — what matters is whether they control the money or the day-to-day running.

What does “fit and proper” mean?

The fit and proper persons test is HMRC’s check on each manager. It asks whether the person makes sure, or is likely to make sure, that the charity’s money and tax reliefs are used only for charitable purposes.

HMRC is not testing character in the abstract. Its own guidance is practical, and asks exactly that. The question is whether this person can be trusted with the money and the tax status. It is not a question about whether they are, in some general sense, a good person.

Does the declaration go to HMRC?

No. The declaration goes to the charity, which keeps it on file, and it reaches HMRC only if HMRC asks to see it. Most guidance on this point gets it backwards. HMRC’s own helpsheet, verbatim:

“The signed form should not be sent to HMRC unless HMRC asks to see it.”

The guidance goes further still:

“There is no statutory requirement for charities to follow this suggested procedure…”

Read that carefully. Being fit and proper is the legal duty. The declaration is only HMRC’s own suggested way of showing it — the law does not force you to use this form. In practice, a charity collects the declaration from each manager and keeps it on file. Nothing more happens to it, unless HMRC asks.

What happens if a manager is not fit and proper?

HMRC can treat the management condition as met anyway, where the failure has not harmed the charity’s purposes or where that is just and reasonable. Failing the condition sounds absolute. It is not always. Finance Act 2010 Schedule 6, verbatim:

“The management condition is treated as met throughout the period if the Commissioners … consider that— (a) the failure to meet the management condition has not prejudiced the charitable purposes of the body or trust, or (b) it is just and reasonable in all the circumstances for the condition to be treated as met throughout the period.”

HMRC’s own guidance backs this up: tax reliefs and exemptions are not normally withdrawn while HMRC is still asking whether the management condition is met. Finding out that one manager was not fit and proper is a problem to fix. It is not automatically the end of the charity’s tax status.

Once every manager’s declaration is on file, the next step is to set up your Government Gateway and Charities Online access.

Common mistake: treating it as a formality and collecting signatures without explanation

Each person is making a personal declaration about themselves. The charity receives it and holds it — it is not sent off into the system.

Failing the management condition puts the whole charity’s tax status at risk, not just one person’s role. The light-touch route above can rescue that position in some cases. But it is a fallback, not a reason to treat the declaration as a formality.

Common mistake: applying it only to trustees

The charity-law test of who is disqualified from being a charity trustee is about trustees. So this one feels like it should be too. It reaches “managers” — a wider group than trustees — and HMRC’s own list is wider again. Checking only the board leaves the condition unmet, if a paid manager outside it was never asked to sign.

Worked example

Tollgate Youth CIO has one paid member of staff — a part-time finance officer who is not a trustee. That person has day-to-day control of Tollgate’s money. That alone puts them inside the management condition, whatever their job title says, and whatever seat they do or do not hold on the board.

Tollgate’s trustees collect a fit and proper persons declaration from the finance officer, alongside their own. It is a signature the board might never have thought to ask for, if it had read the test as being about trustees only.