At the Charity Tax Forum meeting in February 2019, HMRC officials confirmed that as part of a compliance review 3,000 charities (those with the largest Gift Aid claims) would be asked to complete a tax return this year.

This will affect many CTG members, so please keep an eye out for a letter from HMRC in the next few weeks, advising that you need to complete a tax return. CTG Observer Member Buzzacott has shared a sample letter that a number of their clients havereceived.

HMRC letter re charity tax returns – 31 May 2019

Rather confusingly, this is not a formal request to submit a tax return (which in practice is usually submitted online), but is instead a notification that a tax return request will be forthcoming and the reason why this is happening.

We appreciate that not all members will have completed the CT600E in recent times so it is worth revisiting the guidance and talking to your advisers.

We also understand that requests for tax returns will be sent to a random sample of several hundred CASCs.