PTA and School 'Friends Associations' -should all register as charities?

[barnetparent]

Hello, I'm after some advice.
My daughter started at a new school, and I recently joined the school PTA. Except this association calls itself 'Friends of X X '. All the members, both staff and parents are new, and we are told the Asscoiaion was not registered as a charity.

The current Chair is on leave, ad I have been asked to stand in for 1 year.

I was a trustee for many years on the previious school PTA, which was a registered charity.

My question is, should I be pushing for our Association to register as a charity? What are the pitfalls and benefits?

You advice is appreciated.
Thanks

Benefits are you can sometimes get matching donations from large employers if their employees help out at say a fete.

Gift Aid if you get parental donations.

Downside - have to get someone to do an independent review of the accounts. If you cannot find a friendly qualified person who will do for free then you may have to pay. Have to meet certain accounting standards appropriate to a charity.

You don't have to register until you reach a certain threshold, it varies by type of charity eg our church didn't have to register until annual income exceeded £100k

The above info is wrong. Income for a school PTAs is £5000 for registration as a charity. There is nothing onerous about the accounts. You should be doing it anyway. It’s not personal money - it belongs to the association and must be accounted for. You must also have charitable trustees and appoint officers.

You can get the Gift Aid and I would look at the Charities Commission web site for details of how to register. It’s a requirement if you do raise larger amounts. It’s not onerous though. I think you also need a constitution and hsve an AGM.

Thanks for your replies. I have just read online, if an associations primary aim is for charitable purposes then it is a legal requirement to register as a charity.

Secondly if the main recipients of the 'assocoations work' are 'the public', again it is deemed to be a charity.
No definition is given for 'the public', but my understanding is that a school falls under this category.

Again any comments welcome.

Any comments welcome

• sp 'associations'

Yes become a charity. We missed out on being able to pay for grants as our pta wouldn't register. It's not a hard process.

You are raising money for the pupils of the school - they are “the public”. The PTA should not just hand over money to the school. They must keep their own accounts. Usually money will either be spent by the PTA directly or an agreed amount given to the school for a contribution towards a project. Often schools get better discounts when buying books for example. There’s nothing negative about being a Charity. Look at www.parentkind.org.uk for info about being a charity.

I have just read online, if an associations primary aim is for charitable purposes then it is a legal requirement to register as a charity

A charity is only required to register if you want to be a Charitable Incorporated Organisation or your turnover is more than £5,000 per year assuming you are in England or Wales. Unless you meet one of those conditions you cannot register. That doesn't stop you from being a charity - there are a lot of unregistered small charities.

It is also open to you to decide that you don't want to be a charity. If you go down that route you will never have to register. However, you will not be able to do or say anything that implies you are a charity, and you won't be eligible for the tax breaks that are available for charities. The simplest way to avoid being a charity is to include a non-charitable objective alongside the charitable ones in your governing document.

Don’t avoid it. There’s no advantage to avoiding if you turnover more than £5000. It’s good practice to be a charity as it rather enshrines good practice regarding accounting and accountability. It keeps the PTA funds very separate from the school and ensures you have a constitution. It’s worth doing. People also prefer to give to charities, especially with gift aid.

@Guymere

Don’t avoid it. There’s no advantage to avoiding if you turnover more than £5000. It’s good practice to be a charity as it rather enshrines good practice regarding accounting and accountability. It keeps the PTA funds very separate from the school and ensures you have a constitution. It’s worth doing. People also prefer to give to charities, especially with gift aid.

I agree but some organisations worry about the administrative overhead that is involved in being a registered charity. The requirements for small charities have been eased a lot so I think they are worrying unduly but ultimately it is their decision.

I have never found it unduly worrying and its definitely good practice anyway. If they turnover more than £5000 it is not really their decision. It is usually required.

Solid advice here
www.parentkind.org.uk/For-PTAs/Advice-hub

As advised on 15 October if you read the thread?!

I did RTFT
but I find linking to the correct page of the relevant independent external source useful on an opinion site