On the 6th December, the Fundraising Regulator announced that it is looking to review a proposed increase to the Fundraising Levy in the charity sector for the first time since 2016. What is the Fundraising Levy? The Fundraising Levy raises the majority of the...
New research has found that charity sector income in the UK has shrunk for the first time in eight years for the 2020/21 tax year. It is thought that smaller charities have been affected the most due to the impact of the pandemic. The UK Civil Society Almanac 2023 has...
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) regulates solicitors in England and Wales. According to its latest annual report the SRA spent £16.5m on disciplinary processes in 2021/22, a £1.5m increase from 2019/20 (pre-covid). It should be noted that the SRA financial...
Hundreds of charities and social enterprises across the UK are set to receive a share of tied up and forgotten accounts worth millions. There is £800m worth of dormant assets and the government has recently announced how £76m of these assets will be distributed. The...
A recent study from the Digital Conveyancing Maturity Index found that the average digital maturity of law firms in England and Wales was 43%. Furthermore only 5% of law firms scored higher than 80%. This will perhaps come as a shock too many considering the pandemic...
The SRA has increased their fining power Last year the SRA increased its fining powers from £2,000 to £25,000 to enable them to impose larger fines on legal firms that fail to implement adequate Anti Money Laundering training and systems. Before this change any fines...
The first set of provisions from the Charities Act 2022 came into force on 31st October 2022. The first set of provisions can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/first-set-of-changes-from-charities-act-2022-come-into-force The Charities Act 2022 gained...
In 2021, one in eight charities (12.5%) were victims of a cyber-attack according to a survey of 2,330 charities across England and Wales conducted by IFF Research. The pandemic meant that charities were forced to gravitate towards online fundraising methods to enable...
Recent data has found that one-off charitable donations have dropped due to the cost-of-living crisis. However, perhaps unsurprisingly since the start of the pandemic charities have reported a significant rise in digital donations. One-off charity donations...
Charity employees and trustees often assume that they receive an automatic VAT exemption on all goods and services that they buy/receive. This is not the case and charities should understand the few concessions in the VAT legislation that can reduce their VAT bills....
A recent survey conducted by HSBC between May – July 2022 has found that 50% of respondents plan to reduce their office space within the next three years. It is important to note that this survey was conducted before the latest economic issues developed. This is an...
What is the indemnity fund? The Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF) was established in 1987 to provide compulsory professional indemnity cover to all solicitor firms in private practice in England and Wales. With the agreement of The Law Society of England and Wales, the...