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Monday 13 September 2010

Charity Act (NI) 2008

The implementation of the Charity Act (NI) 2008 may now be delayed due to a technical issue with the legislation itself in the spotlight and the definition of a "charitable purpose" in particular coming under scrutiny.

When the legislation was originally drafted it incorporated existing legislation from both England & Wales and Scotland. However the law regarding the 'charitable purpose' differs between England and Scotland and so the the NI version in effect contradicts itself.

It now appears that the Act may have to be amended which will result in the new registration process for charities being delayed.

Sunday 12 September 2010

Can Charity Trustees be Paid?

The short answer to this question is generally, no.

However, there are limited circumstances where a trustee can be paid by the charity for services provided to or on behalf of a trustee which go above and beyond the normal duties of that person in his or her trustee role.

A number of conditions must be met before any payment can be made:

-The charities governing documents must give an express power to remunerate the trustee.

-There must also be a written agreement between the charity and the trustee to be paid which should set out the minimum and maximum that the trustee can be paid. To avoid any conflict of interest the trustee should not sit partake in the decision made by the board to enter into the agreement.

-The payment must also be reasonable and must be in the best interests of the charity.

-The total number of trustees who are receiving payment must be in the minority.

-There is an onus on the board to adhere to the "duty of care" as laid out in the Trustee Act (NI) 2001 (2000 Trustee Act in England & Wales)

Trustees can of course recover reasonable out of pocket expenses.