Statutory Filing for Charities

All charities on the Scottish Charity Register are legally required to prepare and submit to the Office of the Scottish Charity Register (OSCR) each year:

• a signed and approved set of Annual Accounts (in the required format) AND

• an Annual Return

Statutory filing can be completed electronically using the OSCR online service or by post.

Charity Annual Accounts

The format for your Annual Accounts and the requirement for external scrutiny is set out in the Charities and Trustees Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006.

The regulatory body is OSCR.

Charities registered in Scotland are legally required to prepare, and submit to OSCR, Annual Accounts either in the Receipts and Payments format or Fully Accrued, depending on:

• Gross annual income of the charity

• Your group’s legal structure

• What your constitution specifies

• Any enactment of Parliament

• Any decision taken by the charity trustees or members

• Any condition of funding

All charities are required to have their Annual Accounts externally scrutinized, and should include an appropriate external scrutiny report as part of their Annual Accounts.

In addition to statutory filing to OSCR and/or Companies House, your charity may also be required to submit your Annual Accounts to a funder as part of the conditions of grants received during the financial period in question.

Along with the Annual Accounts, your charity trustees have a legal duty to submit an Annual Return.

Charity Annual Returns

If your group has expressed an interest in using the OSCR online service you will be issued with secure log in details and be able to complete your Annual Return (as well as updating or ammending your charity's details) electronically.

If you do not wish to use the online service, the day after your charity’s financial year end, OSCR will send out your group’s Annual Return Form(s), along with a Supplementary Monitoring Form for those charities with a gross annual income of £25,000 or more.

The Annual Return form will usually be pre-populated with the information OSCR currently holds. Your charity is required to check this information and to:

• make any updates clearly

• complete sections of the forms relevant to the charity

• sign and return the form along with the charity’s Annual Accounts (in the required format)

The deadline for submitting your Annual Return to OSCR (either by post or online) is nine months from your charity’s financial year end.