Charities Act 2006

The essential guide, Charities Act 2006 a Summary of what trustees need to know about the new Charities Act 2006.the Act aims to provide trustees with more flexibility and less bureaucracy – particularly smaller charities. It offers new, easier ways for charities to make changes to their purposes, structures and administration. There are new provisions for transferring assets, winding up, changing objects and merging.

Before, charities that wanted the benefits of incorporation had to face two sets of regulation, as both a charity and a company. Now, there is a new legal structure specifically for charities – the Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). Second, the Act modernises the definition of ‘charitable purposes’, bringing it up to date to reflect how charity has evolved and developed over many years. All purposes that were recognised as charitable before the Act are covered by the new definition.