Dear Department for Communities (Northern Ireland),

Please see link below. Please supply the information as requested to the CCNI.
As the DFC have announced through the Belfast Telegraph that they are in charge of Charity Legislation, and the CCNI appear unable to produce the recorded information.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...

Yours faithfully,

Trevor McKee

ProbityaacNI

Dear DfC FOI,

Clarification as requested;

1. On 11th May 2010 CCNI stated that it had received a list of 7,000 N.Ireland organisations “registered with HMRC as charities.” (More accurately, treated by HMRC as tax exempt.)

2. These were entered by CCNI on a “deemed list” and allowed to continue claiming tax relief, pending assessment by CCNI. “If they pass the assessment, they will go on the register.” (Quotes from Third Sector magazine.)

3. In a “Charity Commission Timeline- From June 2010.”
“Invitations will be sent out….and the organisations held on the list will be transferred onto the new Register of N.Ireland Charities providing they have satisfied….the
definition…..If your organisation does not meet the requirements…(which is different….from….HMRC) then it will not be recognised….”

4. It is, therefore, quite clear that in N Ireland prior to the Act of 2008 coming in to operation, there existed a type of body in N. Ireland that had HMRC tax exemption, but was not a Charity in law.

Request for information.

1. Of the 7,000 on the deemed list, how many qualified and passed the test and were so recognised?

2. Of those that passed, how many were permitted not to go on the register but to change in order to cease to pass the test? (It is presumed that Charity registration would not be appropriate for all)

3. Of those that failed the test how many were permitted to change to enable them to pass the test? ( I am presuming that the registration process has such a mechanism)

4. Of those that failed the test, how many have remained so? (did not subsequently re-apply)

5. Can you outline the differences between a charity for the purposes of HMRC prior to the beginning of regulation, and a Charity as defined by the 2008 Act?

Yours faithfully,

Trevor McKee

ProbityaacNI