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.