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Managing Trustees Declaration
As part of the process for constructing the new village hall, the Charity Commission required the managing trustees to complete Form 14 in support of an application to borrow.
Skip to PDF contentThe purpose of the form was to provide the Commission with detailed information about the charity’s financial position, including:
- how the project would be funded
- what income the charity expected to receive
- how the charity would remain viable after the transition
Declared Income Sources
Within the form, the trustees set out the sources of funding available to the charity for the project. These are recorded as:
- proceeds from the sale of the existing hall
- Parish Council rates and funds
- South Norfolk District Council grant
The form presents these as income available to the charity for the purpose of constructing and operating the new village hall.
The Charity Commission required “detailed information” about these income sources in order to assess:
- whether the charity could fund the project
- whether it could repay borrowing
- whether it would continue to operate effectively
VAT Treatment of Parish Council Contributions
Separate correspondence from the period sets out the conditions under which Parish Council expenditure on the project could qualify for VAT recovery.
VAT Notice 749 states:
“If you use your own funds to carry out work to the hall and give the work away to the owners of the hall … and receive nothing in return then you are not making a supply for VAT purposes.”
VAT was recovered on the Parish Council’s contribution to the project on this basis: that funds were given to the charity with nothing in return. This is the same basis referred to in the November 1988 correspondence from the National Association of Local Councils, and reflected in Parish Council minutes and correspondence from the period.
This treatment accords with the presentation in Form 14 of those funds as income available to the charity.
Charitable Status Requirement for District Council Grant
Steering Group minutes from the same period record that funding from South Norfolk District Council was dependent on the new hall having charitable status.
Reading the Documents Together
The records from this period are consistent:
- funding from sale proceeds, local authority contributions, and grants is presented as income available to the charity
- the Charity Commission required and received detailed financial information on that basis
- VAT recovery on Parish Council expenditure was conditional on the Council receiving nothing in return
- District Council funding was made on the basis of charitable status
Taken together, these documents describe the financial framework under which the new hall was funded and approved.
Supported by detailed financial information demonstrating viability, this formed part of the material considered by the Charity Commission when granting authority for borrowing and for the transition to the new hall.
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