Setting up a charity can be very rewarding but also a lot of work. Voluntary organisations don't have to be charities to carry out charitable activities or do fundraising, as long as you don't claim to be a charity. If you are thinking of setting up a charity, you should think carefully about the advantages and disadvantages for your organisation before making a decision. Another option is to consider working with an existing charity in your chosen field.
If you do become a charity you will have legal responsibilities, duties and restrictions. You will have to report to OSCR every year and provide accounts; give certain information to the public about what you do and how you do it.
Being a charity can give the public confidence in supporting you and may help encourage donors. It can also open up funding opportunities.
Find out more about becoming a charity and Being a Charity in Scotland.
An organisation must meet a legal set of requirements call a charity test to become a charity and be entered in the Scottish Charity Register.
Once you've read the guidance, decided upon your legal form, and made the decision to apply to become a charity you need to send us:
- a completed application form,
- signed Trustee Declaration forms,
- your Governing document (a draft is fine),
- where possible a Business Plan or similar document that tells us what you plan to do and
- if you're already up and running a copy of your latest accounts.
See our How to apply page for more information.
It is free to apply and to register a charity.
We will process your application as quickly as possible. Sometimes applications take longer to process if they are complex or we need further information. One of the most common reasons for the application taking time is because we don't have enough information at the start.
OSCR can't help you set up a charity or decide if it's the right option for you but there are advice and support organisations that can. The main ones are your local Third Sector Interface (TSI) and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO).
If you need help using our online 'Application to be a charity' system, this guidance takes you through the pre-application information required and shows you how to navigate the online system.
If you have concerns about a charity or an organisation representing itself as a charity, you must complete our online concern form. We will normally expect you to have contacted the charity trustees first.
Before sending us a concern, we recommend that you read our How OSCR deals with concerns and inquiries guidance. This sets out what you, the charity, and the public can expect from us. In the guidance, we explain the options available to OSCR when we become aware of a concern about a charity, or when we identify that something is not operating as it should.
In line with our published inquiry policy, we will not be in touch again with those who have raised a concern when we have assessed a concern and do not take it forward. We only contact someone who has raised a concern when we require more details to make our assessment.
Charities need to complete an online annual return each year to provide us with information about the charity (in particular for the Scottish Charity Register, and including information about the charity’s finances).
In addition to an online annual return, charities need to provide us with:
An online annual return is completed using OSCR online.
Please read our Using OSCR online to submit an online annual return' guidance. It contains information on:
- Logging in to OSCR online
- The information you need to provide for every question
- How to upload required documentation.
Currently you can use our OSCR Online to:
- fill out and submit your online annual return
- attach and submit your accounts.
You can also update your:
- principal contact details
- website address
From summer 2025, you'll also be able to provide us with your trustee information.
Charity users are individuals who can log in to OSCR Online to submit an annual return and make certain updates on behalf of their charity. Each charity can designate up to three charity users.
When a charity is first registered, its principal contact is automatically set up as a charity user based on the information provided in the application. Charities can update their list of charity users at any time.
You do not have to be a charity trustees to be added as a charity user. Users can also be someone associated with the charity, for example an Independent Examiner.
For details on how an existing charity user can add others, click here.
If no one in your charity currently has access to OSCR Online, please email us at info@oscr.org.uk with your charity name and number, and we will assist you.
To change your password, click the ‘reset password’ button on the OSCR Online login screen.
Once you have clicked this you should be taken to a page where it will ask you to input your email address. If you then click ‘send verification code’ you will receive an email with instructions that will then allow you to reset the password.
Charity users can be added and removed within OSCR Online. Please see our guidance on managing charity users for more information.
The details of the principal contact can be updated within OSCR Online.
Please see our guidance on how to update principal contact details for more information.
If you can't scan and attach your accounts you can still fill out the online annual return then email your accounts to info@oscr.org.uk within 28 days. However, please be aware that we still must receive your accounts before your annual return deadline regardless of the 28 days, or your charity will be marked as late on the Scottish Charity Register.
No. Please make sure all of your required documents are correct before you complete your submission. If you feel they need to be changed afterwards, please email info@oscr.org.uk.
Charities must submit their online annual return within 9 months of their accounting year-end. This can be done using OSCR Online.
OSCR cannot extend this deadline.
If a submission is late, it will still be processed, but the charity’s entry on the Scottish Charity Register will show the delay. Late submissions can affect a charity’s operations and public trust.
Failing to submit the required information may result in:
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Difficulty securing funding, as many funders rely on the register for decision-making.
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Loss of benefits associated with charitable status, such as water rates exemption.
Since April 2024, OSCR has had new powers to remove charities from the Scottish Charity Register if they:
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Fail to submit accounts within 9 months of their accounting year-end, and
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Do not respond to OSCR’s communications regarding the failure.
Continued failure to submit accounts could lead to removal from the register.
Yes, OSCR will accept typed or digital signatures on charity accounts that are submitted with a charity's online annual return.
There are two types of charity accounts:
- receipts and payments accounts (R&P) - a simpler format of accounts for charities utilising cash accounting
- fully accrued accounts - more complex accounts
You will only have to prepare fully accrued accounts if one of the following applies:
- the charity's gross income in the financial year is £250,000 or more
- the charity is also a registered company
- the charity's governing document says it should prepare accrued accounts
- any third party, for example a funder, has asked for accrued accounts.
Who can check your accounts depends on:
- your charity's governing document
- gross income and net assets and
- whether or not your charity is also a company.
Our Guide to Charity Accounts explains what form of external scrutiny is required for your charity's accounts.
More information about charity accounting can be found here.
Yes, accounts must be prepared on an annual basis to report the activity of the charity.
Yes you can. You can change the date using OSCR Online.
- A charity can change its financial year end to any date as long as the new period does not exceed 18 months.
- There are restrictions to the number of changes a charity can make in a 5 year period.
- A charity can only have 2 periods which exceed 12 months in any 5 years.
The accounts must show information for the current and the previous year. When changing from an accruals to a receipts and payments basis the previous year’s figures must be restated to a receipts and payments basis.
This means they must be recalculated and presented as though receipts and payments accounting has always been used. The same applies if you are changing from receipts and payments to fully accrued accounting.
No.
Receipts and Payments Accounts (R&P) show all items which are received into and paid out of a charity's bank account(s). If the charity receives a loan this must be included as a receipt within the receipts and payments account for that year. When the loan is repaid this must be shown as a payment.
The outstanding balance on any loans should be recorded as a note in the statement of balances.
More information about charity accounting can be found here.
Receipts and Payments Accounts (R&P) show the transactions which pass through a charity's bank account. How an investment is recorded in the R&P accounts will depend on whether the charity uses an investment broker or not.
Where a charity manages the investment directly via their own bank account then all the transactions going through the bank account will need to be reflected in the R&P accounts.
Where a charity uses a broker, the broker may buy and sell investments on the charity's behalf. In these cases the investment transactions would not be included in the charity’s accounts, because the investment transactions take place outside the charity's bank account. The only amounts which should be included are amounts which are remitted to (or paid from) the charity’s bank account.
No, charitable companies are not eligible to opt in to the micro-entity regime. They are specifically excluded from opting in under The Small Companies (Micro-Entities' Accounts) Regulations 2013. This means that charitable companies cannot submit micro-entity accounts to OSCR or to Companies House.
For all questions about gift aid please contact HMRC directly.
We can't provide specific advice this. However, we do have guidance on charity investments: Charity investments: guidance and good practice
Reserves are the funds that your charity has which can be freely spent on any of its charitable purposes. You should have a policy which sets out the level of reserves your charity aims to hold to allow your charity to be financially sustainable. It is an integral part of the financial management of the charity. It should be specific to your own charity’s needs.
OSCR can’t provide specific advice on the level of reserves a charity should hold. This is because all charities are different and will need different levels of reserves.
For more information, see our Charity Reserves Guidance.
OSCR can’t provide trading advice.
Charities which set up trading arms or subsidiaries do so because this allows them to carry out commercial activities which the charity can't do. It is also a way of protecting the charity and its assets from the risks associated with trading.
As a charity trustee you have a duty to act in the best interests of your charity and the decision to set up a trading subsidiary should be taken after getting appropriate professional advice.
Find out more by reading our charities and trading guidance.
Charity trustees are people in ‘general management and control’ of the charity. This means the trustees are the people legally responsible for all decisions and actions taken by the charity.
Charity trustees can also sometimes be known as committee members, directors or board members.
Everyone who is a trustee of your charity must be aware of their responsibilities and requirements under charity law. Even if your trustees have different roles within the charity, like Treasurer or Chairperson, they all have a shared responsibility under charity law.
OSCR's Guidance and good practice for charity trustees explains what the law says charity trustees must do and must not do.
A SCIO must have at least three charity trustees as stated in the SCIO Regulations.
For other legal forms, there is no legal number of charity trustees but it is good practice to have at least three.
Legislation states that certain people are disqualified from acting as charity trustees:
- someone with an unspent conviction for dishonesty or an offence under the 2005 Act
- someone who is an undischarged bankrupt or has a Protected Trust Deed to pay off debts with creditors
- someone who has been removed under either Scottish or English Law from being a charity trustee
- someone who is disqualified from being a company director.
OSCR has the power to waive a disqualification if a person applies to us and meets the relevant criteria. This can be in relation to one particular charity or a type of charity. However, the person will remain disqualified unless / until we grant this waiver.
Not at the moment. Updates on charity trustee changes should be stated in the charities accounts. We do need to know when a Principal Contact changes and this should be updated in OSCR Online.
However, from summer 2025 you will need to provide OSCR with details for all of your charity's trustees on OSCR Online and keep it up-to-date whenever there are changes.
You must ask for OSCR's prior consent before making any of the changes listed below.:
- changing the name of the charity
- winding up the charity
- amending the objects or purposes of the charity
- amalgamating the charity with another body
- changing the charity's legal form
- applying to the court to change purposes, amalgamate or wind-up.
This page tells you how to seek permission from OSCR for these changes.
In addition to the changes that require OSCR's prior consent, you must update tell us within 3 months when:
- your Principal Contact changes*
- the contact details for the existing Principal Contact change*
- you have changed your accounting year end date**
- you change your governing document (unless the change is to the charitable purposes or the charity's name - this needs our approval first).
- when any change consented to by OSCR is implemented.
Find out more about making changes to your charity.
*This should be changed straight away and can be done using OSCR Online.
**You can do this by using OSCR Online.
If you want to continue your organisation's activity but don't want to be a charity any more, you can email info@oscr.org.uk and ask us to remove your organisation from the Scottish Charity Register. We aim to do this within 28 days. However, we may continue to request an online annual return and accounts from the organisation to ensure your any remaining assets are used for charitable purposes.
If you are a SCIO this information does not apply. Please see our FAQs on SCIOs for further information.
You must apply to us and ask for our consent before you plan to dissolve the charity. You must tell us what you plan to do with any assets the charity has left.
If we consent to the application you will need to contact us again once the charity has dissolved and give us any information we asked for when we gave our consent.
Find about more about winding up or dissolving your charity.
At the moment, you do not need to tell us every time a charity trustee changes, unless they are also the charity's principal contact.
Any charity trustee changes should be included in your Trustees Annual Report.
However, from summer 2025, your charity will need to provide us with details on all of its trustees on OSCR Online. From this date, you should go into OSCR Online and update the trustee information we hold as soon as possible.
You can find FAQs on Incorporation in A Guide to Incorporation
The Scottish Charity Register is a public record maintained by the OSCR. It contains key information about every registered charity in Scotland. The details available on the register typically include:
- Basic charity details
- Principal office or trustee contact address
- Public email or website (if provided)
- Charity Purposes and Activities
- Financial Information
- Annual return submission history
- Redacted copies of the latest set of accounts for certain charities depending on their income level or legal form (current law restricts us from publishing all accounts in full).
From the end of 2025, the Register will also contain trustee information and full unredacted charity accounts received after this time.
If you are not searching using the charity number (beginning SC0 [zero]), try using less search terms. It may be that the charity has a slightly different name on the Register than the one you have. Remember, there are additional filter options on the Register search page, including the option to search for former charities.
Where the address for the charity is a trustee's address, we have to publish this along with the name of the principal contact. Where the address held is the principal office address, we are only required to publish this address.
OSCR does not issue a certificate of registration when you become a charity. This is because over time, your information will change. You might update your purposes or change your principal contact address. Instead, proof of registration is shown by the charity being entered on the Scottish Charity Register. This is the most up to date information on the charity and is currently updated every working day overnight. If you need to prove you are a registered charity, you can send a link to your register extract or print this off.
As Regulator, we can give you general guidance on the legal requirements of being a charity, but we can't give you specific advice about your individual charity or matters outside of Scottish Charity law.
However, information and guidance for charities is available from:
- Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO): the membership organisation for Scotland's charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises.
- Third Sector Interface (TSI): these are local organisations that offer support to voluntary organisations.
- Development Trusts Association Scotland (DTAS): the national body for development trusts in Scotland.
- You may also wish to consult a professional advisor.
- The Law Society of Scotland may be able to help you to identify a professional firm with expertise in charity law.
- Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland may be able to help you to identify a professional firm with expertise in charity accounting.
- HMRC: will be able to help you with any questions you may have about tax and gift aid.
Our Service Standards set out the level of service you can expect from us in key working areas.
We try to give the best possible service in all areas of our work but we accept that sometimes things can and do go wrong. When this happens we would like to know so that we can try to put things right. Find out how to raise a complaint about OSCR here.