UCVO

Who is OSCR?
The regulation of charities in Scotland is now the task of the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR).  The Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 (”the Act”) gives OSCR a number of key fuctions in relation to charities:
1.  To determine whether organisations are charities;
2.  To keep a public register of charities;
3.  To encourage, facilitate and monitor compliance by charities with the provision of the Act;
4.  To identify and investigate apparent misconduct in the administartion of charities and to take remedial or protective action; and
5.  To give information or advice, or to make proposals, to Scottish Ministers on matters relating to OSCR’s functions.

Charity Status and the Scottish Charity Register
There is a new legal definition of ‘charity’ in Scotland. To be a charity in Scotland a body must be on the Scottish Charity Register. Carrying out benevolent work or having charitable purposes does not in itself make a body a charity.
Being a charity may entitle the body to certain financial benefits, such as rates relief or Gift Aid, and equally importantly it will allow the charity to benefit from the considerable public goodwill towards charities.
Entry on the Scottish Charity Register does not in itself ensure that a body will get relief from UK taxes or receive Gift Aid. A charity on the Register will have to contact HMRC and ask for tax relief on the basis of being charitable for UK tax purposes.
Bodies registered or recognised as charities in foreign jurisdictions will also have to register with OSCR if they have a substantial presence in Scotland or wish to represent themselves as being charities in Scotland.
Before a body can be entered onto the Register, and so be a charity in Scotland, it will have to satisfy the charity test. This requires the organisation to have exclusively charitable purposes and to provide (or intend to provide) public benefit. There are 15 charitable purposes listed in the Act, and the Act also sets out how OSCR should decide whether or not a body provides public benefit. For more information on the charity test see OSCR Guidance 1: Meeting the Charity Test. This is available on OSCR’s web site, http://www.oscr.org.uk/ or can be requested as a hard copy by calling 01382 220 446.
OSCR may also, when requested, designate some charities which have the advancement of religion as their principal purpose as designated religious charities. Designated religious charities are exempt from certain regulatory requirements.
If a charity were ever to be removed from the Register, whether at its own request or by OSCR (because it no longer met the charity test), then any assets it still held at the time of removal would be locked into the charitable purposes for which they were intended and OSCR would continue to exercise regulatory powers in relation to those assets.

Becoming a Charity in Scotland
To gain more insight on deciding to become a charity, read the leaflet on the link below:
http://www.oscr.org.uk/publicationitem.aspx?id=5390a1fb-6090-42d2-bc52-a2a52bfe3d40

Applying for Charity Status
This link will take you to the OSCR page to enable you to download the application form:
http://www.oscr.org.uk/Registration.stm