| THE CHARITY COMMISSION has given more details of how religious organisations can prove public benefit if they want to keep their charitable status and the tax advantages that go with it.
The new details are set out by the Commission in its Draft supplementary guidance on Public Benefit and the Advancement of Religion. This follows the general guidance issued in January (News, 18 January).
The draft guidance says that religion, to be charitable, must be “a sincere religious belief system of substance or significance, capable of benefiting society, having a certain level of cogency, coherence, seriousness and importance”.
The document raises a wide range of issues for religious charities, and seeks their response on whether it has represented them in an acceptable way. Charities have just under four months to respond.
The Charity Commission says it does not expect large numbers of religious charities to be unable to show that they met the conditions for public benefit. “But neither can there be any guarantee that every religious charity currently on the register will be able to show that it meets the requirement.”
The Mennonite Church in London, which traditionally opposes violence, reacted swiftly to the proposed regulations. The draft guidance gives as an example of something that would not qualify as advancing religion an organisation set up to campaign for the non-payment of taxes in protest against war.
Vic Thiessen, director of the London Mennonite Church, said on Monday that he foresaw problems. He said that, although the church had not set up any organisation to promote tax boycotts, “tax boycotts are something that we actually do.” He said the Charity Commissioners were being “somewhat naïve” in their understanding of religion.
“We do not think it has a very clear understanding of how religion promotes the moral and spiritual welfare of the community.”
The Religious Society of Friends said on Wednesday that it “raised questions for us which we will be taking up with the Charity Commission in due course”.
The Commission will be on the alert for political organisations masquerading as religious ones. It says: “Putting forward a particular personal viewpoint and seeking changes in the law based on quotes from religious texts does not amount to advancing religion in a way that is charitable.”
The lonely rural church with only “a single-figure congregation” was still of public benefit, the regulations say. But it has to be open for the “passive advancement” of religion, or at least have a notice up saying when it would be.
www.charity-commission.gov.uk |
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