Tuesday 19 March 2013

13. Charity regulator lessons from the UK Cup Trust case?

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Summary

On 7 March 2013 the Chair and Chief Executive of the Charities Commission of England and Wales, and the Chief Executive of the UK tax authority, were grilled by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee.  The topic was “Cup Trust and tax avoidance”.  Cup Trust was a charity involved in a circular scheme apparently designed to generate gift aid relief.  It was, effectively, a tax avoidance scheme involving 46 million pounds of gift aid paid out by the tax authority.  (It is still unclear whether the tax authority actually paid out the gift aid – though newspaper reports suggest that it stopped the payments in time).

The transcript and video is available on public record:

This case gives an interesting insight into how the England and Wales charities regulator operates. There are lessons here for both the NZ and Australia charity regulators, as well as the charities they regulate.

Four specific topics caught my attention in the transcript:

-         It gives some statistics about the number of England and Wales charities and regulator investigation activities;
-         The Cup Trust discussion highlights some of the risk filters a regulator may be expected to use in its screening process;
-         It gives an example of why it thinks the regulator has a “soppy” annual form which does not collect enough information for risk assessment purposes; and
-         It highlights some grey areas which may, or may not, need to be resolved in order to improve public trust and confidence in the sector.

The Chair and Chief Executive stood up reasonably well to a series of pointed questions.  However, even though the Chair had been only employed for a few months and the Chief Executive for two years, it was surprising that they both admitted to not having read a key National Audit Office report from 2001 “Giving Confidently: The role of the Charity Commission in Regulating Charities”.   Several other mistakes were also admitted, including not having made a public statement saying they did not like schemes of the sort in question, and not cooperating closely enough with the tax authority.

The details

1. The charity regulator’s investigation numbers and resources

The UK charities regulator is responsible for regulating “600,000 charities in Britain”.    Between 20-25 new charities register every day.  The regulator has allocated 15% of its resource to investigations (approximately 25 staff).  It has about 70 “statutory inquiries” open at any one time; in the last year it closed 9 statutory inquiries and opened 12.  The regulator also conducts approximately 20 compliance (monitoring) visits each year.  The regulator said that 2% of the 50,000 financial accounts filed by charities are specifically looked at.

In comparison, NZ has 25,000 registered charities and, before it was disestablished and transferred to the Department of Internal Affairs, the charities regulator had 10 investigations staff (23% of the 44 total staff) according to its 2011 Annual Report dated October 2011.

As part of the submissions, the UK tax authority also noted that it undertakes 5,000 charity interventions per annum, 300 of which involve fraud.  In recent times they prosecuted four individuals.  The tax authority shares information with the charities regulator, has 6-monthly strategic meetings and does joint investigations.

2. Screening tips for a charities regulator

The Public Accounts Committee highlighted a number of areas which they expected the charities regulator to use as part of its screening approach:

-         The reputation of the charity advisor.  In this case the advisor was NT (No Tax) Advisors.  Apparently their prime business is avoiding tax and that is well known.
-         The number and nature of the charity trustees: The charity had a sole corporate trustee which was based in a tax haven – the British Virgin Islands.
-         The proportion of money spent on charitable purposes (as a proportion of total spend).  The charity gave away 55,000 pounds despite revenue of 177m pounds.
-         Charitable spend being conditional on receiving money from the government.  The charity said it would only pay out for charitable purposes once it had received 46m pounds from the government by way of gift aid (which is similar to donation tax credits and DGR deductions but it is paid directly to the charity rather than to the donor).
-         Late filing, especially for large charities.  The charity was 235 days late in filing its return with the regulator.  The Committee was particularly surprised that a charity of this large size would be allowed to file so late with action not being taken sooner.
-         Charity disposals of assets that are undervalued.  The Commission agreed that it would be concerned if any charity trustee disposed of assets at an undervalue.  However in this case they noted that the scheme ensured assets with charitable purposes were protected.
-         Circularity.  This feature is common to many tax avoidance schemes involving charities.
-         Involvement of high net worth individuals.  In respect of these particular schemes the tax authority noted that they are a “high net worth fiddle” designed to steal money from the taxpayer.
-         Grant-giving charities.  Grant-giving charities (who do not undertake charitable work directly but pass money on to other charities) were identified as being in a particular risk category.
-         Related party receipts of grants:  The Committee asked the Commission to clarify whether the charities who received grants from the Trust had any connection with the people running the Trust.

3. “Soppy” annual return forms

The Committee was critical of what they called “soppy” questions in the annual return that was required to be submitted to the regulator.  It is noteworthy that the England and Wales regulator asks less questions for small charities with income under 5,000 pounds – which the Cup Trust appeared to do, at least in one year.

The Committee specifically noted that charities were not asked to list their biggest grants, despite grant-giving charities being a particular risk category.

In comparison to NZ and the current Australian proposals for their annual returns:
-         Both NZ and Australia asks all charities for the amounts of grants paid (although they do not require a breakdown)
-         Both NZ and Australia asks all charities to identify if their activities involve making grants to other charities
-         Only Australia asks if grants (or any other payments) are made to related parties (although this only applies to charities with revenue above $250,000 pa).
-         NZ asks for the same information from all charities, whereas 78% of Australian charities are asked to provide less information in their annual return.

4. The grey areas of charity regulation

The Committee members asked pointed questions and the members did not always agree amongst themselves.  Here are some of the grey areas they touched on:

-         Should there be a minimum proportion of money that a charity gives away each year?  This question was raised by the Committee, however the regulator noted that it is not for them to determine, because that would move them from being a regulator to being a licensing authority.  If it was seen as a critical issue, the regulator stated that a law change would be required.
-         Should the regulator actively seek law change?  One Committee member said the regulator was “as mute as a eunuch” about the powers it doesn’t have, giving a clear expectation that the regulator should actively seek law changes to address perceived weaknesses.  Two specific law changes mentioned were in respect of setting a minimum proportion of money that a charity gives away, and stronger law to enable the regulator to remove trustees.
-         Should the charities regulator be a tax avoidance expert?  The Committee Chair said “It is your job to know if an organisation that purports to be a charity is actually an organisation that is avoiding tax.” The assumption was that a tax avoiding charity would not be for the public benefit.  There was a view that it was not sufficient for the charity regulator to simply rely on the tax authority to let them know charities are being used as tax avoidance mechanisms.
-         Should the regulator focus on overheads?  One Committee member cited Oxfam as spending only 3% on administration costs and 97% going to charity.  They were of the view that this is the sort of proportion all charities should apply, and if they do not then it should be a flag for the regulator. 
-         What are the consequences if a regulator has a poor regulatory approach?  Throughout the transcript there is discussion of the charities regulator not using all its powers sufficiently.  For example, not removing more trustees (in a sector which apparently has 1.1billion of fraud, according to the National Fraud Authority estimates).  The transcript ends with the statement “we are pretty appalled-I think-about whether or not you have the right regulatory regime to give the public confidence that charitable trusts are properly regulated by you.”
-         The role of a light touch regulator. The UK regulator apparently uses the phrase “back on track” to emphasise that it does not take charities off the register but focuses on putting them back on track when they get into trouble.  In that sort of environment where you are a light touch regulator and have a minimalist compliance function, how do you really know that “99.9% of cases of charities and trustees are decent organisations run by decent people doing the best for their local communities”?  This transcript suggests that it is hard to argue that you should be light touch when the National Fraud Authority estimates that the sector has 1.1b of fraud occuring each year.

Thursday 14 March 2013

12. Australia announces its charity data proposals for 2013 & 2014

Today, on 13 March 2013, the Australian charities regulator, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, released its detailed plans to collect data from over 56,000 registered Australian charities.

Two key documents on its website are:

1. The (sample) 2013 Annual Information Statement
2. The 2014 Annual Information Statement consultation paper

These forms are relevant for NZ because they give us an insight into what information our neighbour believes is necessary to regulate its charitable sector.

Here are five key differences which I think are worth highlighting between the Australian and NZ approaches:

1. 2013 is a transitional year

The 2013 Annual Information Statement does not ask for any financial information.  This it largely due to timing pressures - in the middle of 2012 the Minister announced that financial information would not be requested in the first year, so that charities had time to get their accounting systems prepared.

As a result, all charities are asked to complete the same questions in 2013, whereas in 2014 medium and large charities will be asked to provide more information than small charities.

This also means the 2013 statement is pretty simple - there are 16 mandatory questions and 3 optional questions.  However the results will still give a new insight into the sector.  For example, when the 2013 annual information statements are filed (most are due by 31 December 2013) we will know:

- Which Australian charities fall into the small, medium and large categories (based on whether their revenue is below, between or above $250,000 and $1m)
- What their purposes, activities and beneficiaries are
- Who are basic religious charities (see "exemptions", below)
- How they pursued their purposes in 2013 and what changes are expected in 2014
- The number of paid staff and unpaid volunteers
- Where they operate - both in terms of the eight Australian states and territories, and overseas countries.

The three optional questions are focused on 'red tape reduction' - one of the prime objectives of the Australian regulator (see "red tape reduction" below).

2. 2014 Annual Information Statement financial information

The Australian regulator announced it is only consulting on what financial information should be collected in 2014, so until May/June this year we won't know for sure what their final decision will be.

However, here are some of the more striking differences (and similarities) between the Australian financial information proposals and the financial information NZ currently collects:

- Small charities provide less financial information:  In Australia, small charities will provide significantly less financial information than medium and large charities.  Based on the current proposals, small charities will provide up to a maximum of 12 financial data elements, compared to a maximum of 31 for medium and large charities.  In NZ, all charities are asked to provide the same - approximately 30 - financial data elements.
- Business activities:  Unlike NZ, Australia has not separated out revenue and expenses from business activities.  However it has asked all charities if they conduct business activities and, if so, the nature of those business activities.
- Audit/review details:  Australia's register will show whether its medium charities have had an audit or a review (they can elect to have either) and for both medium and large charities it will show if the audit/review report was modified and, if so, the reason for that modification. None of this information is captured on the NZ register.
-  Related party transactions:  Australia's register will show whether the medium and large charities had related party transactions, as defined by Australian Accounting Standards Board standard 124 Related Party Transactions.  The NZ regulator does not capture this information.
- Other Australian additions:  For its medium and large charities, Australia has more information about government grants, salary sacrifice information, net realised and unrealised gains and losses, more loan information, and the amount of asset revaluation reserve within accumulated funds.
- NZ's additional information:  Apart from trading income/expenses, the main difference is that NZ asks charities to specify the % of income sent overseas.  Australia does not ask any % questions, however like NZ it does ask all charities to state the amount of grants and donations made overseas.  NZ also asks charities to estimate their volunteer hours during an average week, whereas Australia does not (although I admit this is not financial information...)
- Similar omissions:  Neither country asks charities to quantify fundraising expenses, despite this being quite a hot topic for the sector.

3.  Exemptions - Basic Religious Charities

Australia brought in plenty of GST exemptions compared to NZ so it's not surprising they have also created a cut-out within the charity sector.  Charities which are defined as "basic religious charities" do not have to provide any financial information on the Annual Information Statement.  Nor do they have to provide annual financial reports, or comply with governance standards.  And the charities regulator is unable to remove any of their responsible persons as a compliance response.

The definition of basic religious charities is fairly complex and it is provided in the consultation documents.  It's worth noting that basic religious charities can be small, medium or large, as long as they do not receive large amounts of government grants or tax relief through donation tax deductions (DGR status); they are not body corporates or incorporated associations; and they are solely focused on the advancement of religion (ie they cannot have any other charitable purposes that are more than incidental to the advancement of religion). 

The most noteworthy aspect of today's announcement is that although basic religious charities are not required to provide annual financial reports under the legislation, the legislation does not prevent the regulator from asking for financial information in the annual information statement.  So the decision not to ask them to provide financial information in the annual information statement is an operational decision of the Commissioner (which is clearly in line with the policy intent).

4.  Annual financial reports

In NZ, all charities are asked to "attach a copy of the financial statements for your last financial year (they don't have to be audited)".  There are no regulations that set out minimum annual financial reporting requirements.  However, changes are underway with XRB, the national accounting standard setter, consulting on accounting standards for registered charities which will apply from 2015.  In addition, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is currently consulting on auditing and assurance proposals for large and medium registered charities.

Australia is quite different.  Although their accounting standard setter AASB has not developed any charity-specific accounting standards, the Australian Treasury has issued draft reporting regulations which require every medium and large charity (except for basic religious charities) to lodge annual financial reports along with their 2014 and future annual information statements.  Based on the current draft regulations (which may change over the next few months), this means they must attach:

- a statement of profit and loss and other comprehensive income
- a statement of financial position
- a statement of changes in equity
- a statement of cash flows
- notes to the financial statements
- an auditor's report (large) or a reviewer's report (medium)
- the responsible entity's declaration about the financial statements and notes - ie that they satisfy the requirements of the Act and that the charity is not insolvent and can pay all of its debts as and when they fall due.

These reports must also comply with accounting standards (although there is still debate about which standards are mandatory for charities which file special purpose financial statements).

In conclusion, although the Australian approach towards annual financial reports looks far more robust than NZ, don't forget that Australia only requires annual financial reports to be lodged by its large and medium sized charities (whereas NZ requires all registered charities to lodge financial statements).  That means for the 78% (or over 40,000) Australian charities categorised as small charities, no annual financial reports will be provided. 

5. Red tape reduction

Last, but not least, the Australian regulator has, as one of its three purposes,

" to promote the reduction of unnecessary regulatory obligations on the Australian not-for-profit sector."

This means the Australian regulator has more of a balancing act than the NZ regulator.  It cannot ask for just any information in its annual information statement.  Instead, it must ensure that the information it asks for will be used for its own assessment activity, will help maintain, protect and enhance public trust and confidence, and will demonstrate its commitment to red tape reduction.

It may be a hard sell for any regulator to ask a sector to provide information it has never provided to the government before, whilst at the same time convincing that sector that by providing it, red tape is actually being reduced.

Time will tell - we'll know the answer when we see the 2014 annual information statement consultation feedback and the changes (if any) the regulator makes to its 2014 annual information statement proposals.  Watch this space.

[Footnote: I am currently working with the Australian charities regulator, so I have been living and breathing the annual information statement details for some time.  It's great to have the material out in the public arena for comment.]