Charities Bulletin – March 2010

The Charitable Incorporated Organisation - Further Delay

The long awaited new legal form for charities, the Charitable Incorporated Organisation ('CIO'), is not now expected until late this year or early 2011.

Many charities have now been waiting for years to gain the advantage of limited liability without the need to establish and manage a company. In some cases, they have identified the need to protect charity trustees from the risk of personal liability as the charity develops and grows but have put off the change in the hope of adopting the CIO format. Faced with further delay and continued doubt as to when the new form will arrive, such charities should consider incorporating immediately as companies limited by guarantee. 

It will be possible for charitable companies to convert into a CIO once the regulations implementing the CIO and the associated Charity Commission procedures have 'bedded in' and any initial problems have been resolved. 

Shivaji Shiva, Head of Charities & Social Enterprise at Michelmores, comments on delay to the CIO in this Third Sector article here.  

For more information on the issues raised in this article, please contact Shivaji at shivaji.shiva@michelmores.com or on 01392 688688.

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