More than 13,000 charities missed the deadline to submit their financial documents in January, the Charity Commission has said.
This is more than double the number which missed the deadline last year, when around 6,000 were late filing.
Charities with financial years ending on 31 March – a large chunk of the sector – needed to file their accounts and annual return with the Commission by 31 January.
The regulator received accounts on time from 35,689 charities. It will be following up with the 13,093 charities that have not met the deadline.
Over 4,000 Covid extensions agreed
Last year the Commission said it would grant extensions where charities are struggling to meet the deadline due to the pandemic.
As of 31 January there were 4,012 charities with an extension agreed, this is nearly double the number which had agreed an extensions in September.
The Commission has said it will grant an extension where requested unless a charity has not submitted the previous year’s accounts, or was already overdue on 1 March 2020.
This policy is being kept under review whilst the pandemic persists, and the Commission recommends that if a charity has all the information available then it should still submit its documents on time.
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