Changes to Charities Regulator Annual Return Form - 4 October

In December 2021 the Charities Regulatory Authority announced changes to the Annual Return form being implemented in 2022. A number of fields have been amended and some new fields added.  

These changes relate to:

• Financial information 

• Information regarding employees 

• Information regarding volunteers 

• Information on assets and liabilities 

• Information on audit opinions 

• Information on international transfer of funds 

The Regulator has issued guidance in relation to these changes which may be viewed here but we wish to draw particular attention to the International Transfer of Funds section which relates to Anti-Money Laundering requirements for nonprofit organisations.  

This section contains five fields:

1. The total income received by the charity from outside the State during the financial period to which the annual report relates  

2. A listing of countries from which income was received (selected from a drop down list).  

3. Total funds spent or transferred outside the State by the charity during the financial period to which the annual report relates – provide figure.  

4. A listing of countries to which funds were transferred (selected from a drop down list).  

5. The methods used to transfer funds outside the State, if relevant e.g. bank based in the State, An Post, online, cash etc. 

In particular the field related to funds spent or transferred outside the state may require charities to ‘drill down’ into their accounting systems as The Wheel understands this relates to funds transferred by the methods listed in the following field, i.e. bank, An Post, online transfer, cash, or money transfer service. For many of you, this will mostly take the form of bank transfers via IBAN, to any non-Irish account whether connected to a charity’s programmes or ongoing operational activities.  

Completing this field may offer unexpected challenges as most accounting software packages do not track this level of detail and we recommend that you allow extra time for completing your annual return this year. 

On Tuesday 4 October at 1pm, the Regulator is hosting a webinar on completing your Annual Return. Register to attend here. 

Should you have any queries or feedback on this, please contact our Director of Finance, Fergal Moran at fergal@wheel.ie.