The Charity Commission has published the final version of the questions charities will be asked when they file their annual return from the end of August.
This includes new questions on senior executive pay, bonuses, pensions and benefits in kind for people earning upwards of £60,000. It will also ask questions about the highest paid employee but not publish this information.
It is also asking charities about any overseas income and expenditure.
During the consultation period umbrella bodies raised concerns about the burden this places on charities and the message it sends to other countries, but the Commission has made only relatively small concessions to these concerns.
The Commission said it is asking about expenditure to find out "how charities transfer and monitor funds sent overseas" and that these questions are necessary because "all money transfer processes bear risks, and it's important that charities take appropriate steps to manage these". Some of the questions relating to how money is transferred out of the regulated banking system are optional for this year to give charities time to adapt their processes.
On asking about income the Commission said it wants a "better understanding of the income sources from outside the UK". For each country that charities receive money from they have to give a breakdown of income from the following sources:
- overseas governments or quasi government bodies
- overseas charities, non-governmental organisations or non-profit organisations (NGOs/NPOs)
- other overseas institutions (for example private company donations)
- individual donors resident overseas
- unknown
The parts relating to private institutions and individual donors will be optional for 2018 but be mandatory from 2019 to allow charities to make changes to their systems.
The Commission dropped plans to ask charities about whether they claim Gift Aid.
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