Got your number?
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 less 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 PCC’s are “excepted from registration”. is is due to legislation which exempts PCC’s with regular income of less than £100,000* to register 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 a covering letter:
- The HMRC charities number which is used for gift aid claims (this is different from a charity commission number) and normally begin with an “X”.
- Note the parish is excepted from registration and quote “SI 1996 No. 180”. This refers to the charities exemption from registration regulations which can be viewed at www.legislation.gov.uk/1996/180
*As with any legislation, the £100,000 threshold could be reduced, so please do monitor the usual Diocesan communication channels (website, e-news, PCC News) for updates.
If a PCC exceeds income of £100,000 in a particular year and this is deemed to be a one-off, you must send the charity commission a letter of dispensation and templates are available from the finance team at Diocesan House.
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