best forum i could find to post this!

bobthesod

Need a bit of advice in presenting accounts for a registered charity/ Company.
Membership is about 500 members. I have noticed that in the preliminary accounts it doesnt show the amount of gift aid that we claim back.

All it says for income is members subs ( 500x 20) £10,000
However i am sure that we are getting gift aid back on some of these subs but there is no 'income' shown for it. There is an entry for donations to a plaque totalling 650, and an entry that does mention gift aid specifically for this at 120.00. but nothing mentioning subs.
So my question is MUST the gift Aid 'refunds' be shown as such or can the be 'absorbed into another column, which i might add i cant seem to find

One other question id life membership. How should this be shown,
in the accounts.As a one off payment the year ir was paid ( lets say its 20 times ann sub) so the income from subs would show for example (500x 20 = 10000) plus (1 x 400) making total subs for year 10400, or is there another way?

Savvy_Sue

Get professional help, quickly if you are close to your filing deadline. I haven't used Independent Examiners Ltd but I do get their mailings, and they have always come across as knowledgeable, friendly and approachable.

Subs are not necessarily Gift Aid-able. Can you find the Gift Aid declarations to see how many you might be able to claim for? Who would have made such a claim? - it doesn't drop into your bank account automatically!

Do the figures on these 'accounts' match the balances in the bank at the end of the financial year?

This isn't something you can afford to mess up: accounts for Ltd Companies have to be presented 'right', and the same for charities. The deadlines are not flexible and you will be fined if you are late.

The question about how to show life membership may not be straightforward. If you do your accounts on a cash basis, then personally I would put it on two separate lines to show how many people paid life members in a particular year. If you are using the accruals basis, then you have to spread the income over several financial years - I think you'd have to decide how many would be appropriate, but if it's 5 times annual membership then 5 years would be reasonable.

And if you don't know which basis you are preparing the accounts on, it's even more of a reason to get expert help!

Final question, what do the previous year's accounts look like? If Gift Aid is shown, how does the amount compare with this year?

antrobus

bobthesod wrote: »

Need a bit of advice in presenting accounts for a registered charity/ Company. Membership is about 500 members. I have noticed that in the preliminary accounts it doesnt show the amount of gift aid that we claim back....

Who prepared these "preliminary accounts"?

bobthesod wrote: »

....All it says for income is members subs ( 500x 20) £10,000. However i am sure that we are getting gift aid back on some of these subs but there is no 'income' shown for it. There is an entry for donations to a plaque totalling 650, and an entry that does mention gift aid specifically for this at 120.00. but nothing mentioning subs. So my question is MUST the gift Aid 'refunds' be shown as such or can the be 'absorbed into another column, which i might add i cant seem to find....

Gift aid on members subs is conditional.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/gift-aid-what-donations-charities-and-cascs-can-claim-on#membership-subscription

You should seek an explanation from whoever prepared these accounts.

bobthesod wrote: »

...One other question id life membership. How should this be shown, in the accounts.As a one off payment the year ir was paid ( lets say its 20 times ann sub) so the income from subs would show for example (500x 20 = 10000) plus (1 x 400) making total subs for year 10400, or is there another way?

Your organisation needs an accounting policy for life membership. The normal thing to do would be to credit the fee to a deferred income account, and then release it to revenue over a period of (say) ten years, whatever.