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“Time is running out for charities to submit their application to register” warned Jersey’s Charity Commissioner John Mills CBE today as he presented his closing remarks at the Charity Conference 2018 held at the Radisson Blu hotel. The event, organised by the Jersey Community Partnership, was attended by charity governors, volunteers, CEOs, fundraising officers and managers, and was opened by His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor who himself, together with his wife, is the patron or president of some 100 voluntary organisations in Jersey.
Speaking at the conference, Mr Mills explained that since the online application process opened in May, over 500 entities had created an online application but only 133 had so far formally submitted them to seek to become registered Charities.
“It is important that applications are submitted before the end of this year. This will protect any tax exemptions presently enjoyed by applicant entities, and also enable them to lawfully continue calling themselves ‘charities’ pending determination of their application. Continuing entitlement to these tax reliefs from 2020 will depend upon whether or not they have successfully been registered.”
The Tax Department has written to all entities who currently receive some charitable tax relief to remind them to submit their application to the Charity Commissioner before the year end.
“We are currently in dialogue with quite a number of applicants to help them with their application” said the Commissioner, “It is important to note that there will be no impact on the current tax reliefs enjoyed by any charity in the short term provided that it has applied for registration by the end of 2018 even if that registration has not been determined by the end of the year. Subject to that, such an organisation’s continuing entitlement to preferential tax arrangements will depend upon whether or not it has successfully become a registered charity, which I shall have certified to the Comptroller of Taxes.”
The first Charity to appear on the public register was the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in September with a further 22 approved since then.The charity register contains information about each charity and, with some limited exceptions, is fully open to public inspection via the Commissioner’s website so that people can if they wish understand more about the purposes, finances and public benefit delivery of the charities that they may wish to support.
From 2019, being a registered charity will be the only means by which an entity now describing itself thus will be entitled to continue doing that.
