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David Spencer
New member
Username: David_spencer

Post Number: 3
Registered: 3-2007

Posted on Monday, March 19, 2007 - 4:21 pm:

Posted on Sunday, March 4, 2007 - 10:51 am:

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Having just received the Charities Act SORP 2005 from Nigel for the 'smaller' parish, I am surprised by the statement on page 14 about the exclusion from the accounts of monies collected during church services for charities. It states 'In these instances these receipts are NOT to be included in the PCC's income as the PCC is acting as agent for the charity'. I appreciate the reasons. However, we have quite a few such collections in our church services eg RBL(Armistice Day), Christingle, Toybox etc. These collections are made with the consent of the PCC in formal services, the donor may have consented to Gift Aid being claimed, and they represent a significant part of our charitable giving. Whilst the sentence in SORP 2005 goes on to say that these amounts should be inculded in the annual report, I feel that their exclusion from the accounts doesn't then give a fair reflection of either our true income or the extent of our charitable giving. I wonder how other treasurer's account for such collections?

Mr I Parsons
New member
Username: Iparsons

Post Number: 2
Registered: 10-2006

Posted on Thursday, March 22, 2007 - 9:43 am:

Thank you David for drawing my attention to this point. We have always treated collections for charities and specific collections from, say, funerals where the family has requested the collection to be paid to a specific charity or organisation as restricted funds. This way the collections are recorded in the accounts and I personally think that this is a more informative method of accounting for these monies.

David Evershed
New member
Username: Evershed

Post Number: 4
Registered: 12-2006

Posted on Saturday, March 31, 2007 - 11:31 am:

Many service collections, eg funerals, are shared between our church and a nominated charity. We show the total collection as income and that part donated to a charity as an expense.

Seems to me that the part collected on behalf of the charity is collected on trust - there is no agency agreement. If there were a formal agency agreement then I suspect there would also need to be separate collection plates for each charity element and the money ought to be paid into a bank account separate from the church.

Also much better control is exercised if the money is included within the Parish accounts as income and expense plus it is more transparent.

Ultimately I rely on the "true and fair" principle to override rules from any source such as the Charities Act Statement of Recommended Practice.

Mr J Buckley
New member
Username: Jbuckley

Post Number: 4
Registered: 10-2006

Posted on Thursday, April 5, 2007 - 9:34 am:

I think the point at issue with special collections is that monies collected on a agency basis for other bodies do not count towards the "gross income" of the PCC. The total size of this figure affects the way you by law present your accounts. However, if you think you need to state these collections to give a true picture of what your church does, put them in the accounts. I do.

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