Doh!

I received a letter from HMRC on Friday in response to my request in April for a Gift Aid reference number.

The letter stated that they were unsure as to whether "PL-ease" was capable of being a charity in law. Alarm bells ringing..... They stated that it is not a charitable purpose "to raise funds".

Hmmmm.. My initial thoughts were that this is what all charities do. If they don't raise funds, they can't be able to support the cause they were set up to help. The letter ended quite hopefully, stating that if I could provide additional information as to what we had done so far in terms of fundraising, and if we could define what was meant by "complex needs" then they would be able to suggest suitable wording for the objects of the charity.

I have read through our Trust deed and can see where the problem lies. At our first committee meeting we agreed that the aim of the charity was "To raise funds to allow for the provision of....". The aim had been cut and pasted into our Trust Deed (by me) and the section headed "Application of income" now stated that the trustees must apply income of the charity in furthering the following objects: To raise funds to allow for the provision of specialist equipment etc..."

What a difference two words can make. This makes it look as though the charity is using its income to raise funds.??!!!

I have replied to HMRC and asked if they would consider the purpose as being charitable if we remove the two words "raise funds" from the objects at our next committee meeting. If not, then I will seek guidance from them as to appropriate wording to use.

It's good that this issue has been spotted as it allows us to correct the deed fairly early on. Just a bit unfortunate that, despite many hours of checking, I didn't notice the error before getting the deed signed up. Lesson learned!