What is my charity number?

Author: Mr James South

Published on: 7 March 2022

In the finance team, we regularly receive queries from parishes asking what their charity number is. This is a question that is normally asked when they are opening a new bank account or applying for a grant.

It is worth noting that fewer than 5% of the parishes in this Diocese are registered with the charity commission and only these parishes will have a charity number.

The majority of PCCs are “excepted from registration”. This is due to legislation which exempts PCCs with regular income of less than £100,000* from registration with the Charity Commission.

If the PCC is an excepted charity, we suggest using one, or both, of the following pieces of information when applying, either on the form itself or in a covering letter:

The HMRC charities number which is used for gift aid claims (this is different from a charity commission number) normally begins with an “X”.

Note the parish is excepted from registration and quote “SI 1996 No. 180” (or the most recent amendment, being “SI 2021 No. 55”). This refers to the charities exemption from registration regulations which can be viewed
at www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2021/55/contents/made

*The current legislation excepting charities from registering if their regular income does not exceed £100,000 is not due to expire until the 31st March 2031. However, please ensure that you are subscribed to eNews, where changes to this and other relevant updates are shared.

If your PCC exceeds income of £100,000 in a particular year and this is deemed to be a oneoff, you must write to the Charity Commission and templates for this are available from the finance team at Diocesan House.

Where you find an organisation such as a bank will not accept the above explanation, please contact us for further assistance. wnzrf.fbhgu@qvbprfrbsabejvpu.bet, 01603 882347


The author...

Mr James South

Senior Finance Officer

This article is from...

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