Charities Are your Trustee Details up-to-date with the Charity Regulator?

All charities must ensure that details are up-to-date and accurate with the Register of Charities. Trustees are legally obliged to ensure information on the Register of Charities is accurate.

If you are a charity Trustee, you can check the register very easily, click on this link, enter the name of your charity, click onto the charity name when prompted and click the “People” tab. There you will see the names of Trustees, appointment date and years of service.

Check with your charity, that the contact details recorded for you are correct.. The Charity Regulatory uses the information recorded to communicate essential information, if they don’t have the relevant contact details you are missing out on important guidance and correspondence from them.

In their last ezine, the Charity Regulator requested all Trustees to check and update if necessary. To do this log into your MyAccount and check that the following details are correct:

• Registered postal address

• Email address

• Telephone number

   

  If you’re having any issues, you phone the Charity Regulatory Authority 0818 927999 or email info@charitiesregulator.ie., their phone lines are manned Monday to Friday between 11am-3pm

   

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Virtual AGM’s still allowed in 2023

The Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Covid-19) Act came into being during the Pandemic when restrictions on travel within Ireland, flights into Ireland and inability to attend public gatherings led to fairly substantial practical problems for many companies. The implementation of the Act resolved some of those problems not least being the ability for a company to convene its Annual General Meeting virtually.

In December 2022 the Government announced the extension of some parts of the Act to the end of this year (31.12.2023). In particular, certain company meetings (including Annual General Meetings) can still be held virtually. This will be welcome news to many companies who prefer this format although there is nothing to stop a company holding a physical meeting if they wish to do so.

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Easter Eggs really!

Easter eggs don’t just mean eggs for Easter anymore now social media refers to Easter Eggs to mean an intentional inside joke or hidden message. Hard to equate an intentional joke with company law. Mind you there will always be a rarefied few who consider compliance with company law a joke but that is another kettle of fish. 

Compliance is hard for most people, what to comply with and why, particularly when trying to do so whilst carrying out our “actual” job. Compliance though is part of our “actual” job and should form part of an on-going continuous process in any organisation.

To have compliance enter your company’s lexicon can start from something as simple as an Agenda item for the next Board Meeting.

• Have compliance an Agenda item for discussion at every Board Meeting.

• Agree top five compliance issues or concerns and start knocking them off one by one.

• Consider appointing one person to lead the compliance processes in your company.

• Types of compliance issues could include any of the following.

• Anti-Money laundering legislation – when is the last time a review was undertaken on how your company manages AML?

• Risk Register – does your company have one, when was it last reviewed by the Directors at an actual meeting?

• Beneficial Ownership – a company must maintain an internal statutory register of beneficial ownership whilst ensuring it also files and continues to update filings with the Central Register of Beneficial Ownership.

• Statutory Registers – are they all current and have you cross-checked with statutory filing in the Companies Registration Office.

• Constitution / Shareholder Agreement – when was your Constitution last reviewed, and does it run in tandem with the Shareholder Agreement or, as is often the case, do they have contradicting clauses?

• Policies – what policies are in place, when were they last reviewed? The horrific invasion of Ukraine sparked most companies to review EU Sanctions Policies which has, in turn, focused the attention of Directors, Managers on Staff on Ethics & Sanctions in a manner that could never have been imagined possible before.

Don’t try and do it all at once, make a start, keep up the momentum and then you can go and buy an actual real Easter Egg. I hope you will all have a fabulous Easter with or without an egg!

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