England and Wales charity thresholds rise on 30 September
On paper, this looks like one more dry statutory instrument. In practice, the Charities Acts 1992 and 2011 (Substitution of Sums) Order 2026 changes the money limits that decide when particular charity rules apply in England and Wales. The Order was made on 17 April 2026, laid before Parliament on 20 April 2026 and, as legislation.gov.uk records, comes into force on 30 September 2026. Signed by Stephanie Peacock for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, it raises several financial thresholds across fundraising, accounts and audits.
If you are a trustee, finance lead, fundraiser or regular donor, the big point is simple: the trigger points are moving upwards. Think of a threshold as a legal line. Below it, one set of duties may apply; above it, another may kick in. **What this means:** some charities will be able to use simpler reporting routes, and some fundraising rules will only bite at a higher amount than before. The rules themselves have not vanished. The point at which they start has changed.
First, the Order changes the 1992 Act rules around paid fundraising. The remuneration limit used in the definition of a professional fund-raiser goes up from £10 to £15 a day, and from £1,000 to £1,500 a year. A related yearly figure in the same definition also rises from £1,000 to £1,500. The lower-paid collector rules in section 60B move in step. There too, £10 becomes £15 a day and £1,000 becomes £1,500 a year. For charities that hire people to raise money, those numbers matter because they help decide which legal fundraising obligations apply to the person doing the asking.
The Order also lifts the £100 figure used in sections 60 and 61 of the 1992 Act to £150. That affects the level at which certain statements about remuneration must be given and the minimum donation or agreement value linked to a donor's right to cancel after responding to an appeal. For donors, this is one of the most human parts of the Order. A legal threshold is not just an accounting line; it can shape the protections attached to a gift. If an appeal, payment or agreement falls before 30 September 2026, the older £100 rules can still matter under the transitional provisions. After that date, the new £150 figure is the one to check.
Some changes are more specialist but still important. Under section 70 of the 2011 Act, the gross income threshold tied to a particular route for the Charity Commission's concurrent jurisdiction rises from £500 to £1,000. This will not affect every charity day to day, but it will matter to advisers handling the smaller cases that sit close to that limit. A more widely felt shift comes in section 133. Trustees of charities with gross income up to £500,000, rather than £250,000, may choose a receipts and payments account plus a statement of assets and liabilities instead of a fuller statement of accounts. For small and medium-sized charities, that can make year-end reporting less heavy.
The audit rules are moving too. Under section 144, the income threshold above which a charity's accounts must be audited rises from £1 million to £1.5 million. The related assets figure rises from £3.26 million to £5 million. Section 145 then lifts two more figures. The lower threshold rises from £25,000 to £40,000, and the threshold linked to the lower-income charity option rises from £250,000 to £500,000. **What this means:** charities sitting between the old and new limits may find that an independent examination, or a simpler reporting route, is enough where a stricter requirement once applied.
The 2015 Group Accounts Regulations are updated in the same direction. The gross income threshold used for deciding whether group accounts must be prepared and audited rises from £1 million to £1.5 million. The Order also removes an older transitional rule in regulation 6 because article 5 now provides the transition. Timing matters just as much as the numbers. The accounting and group-account changes do not apply to any financial year ending before 30 September 2026. So a charity with a year-end before that date stays under the old figures for that year, even though the new Order has already been made.
The Order itself does not give a long explanation for why each figure has been raised. What it does say, plainly, is that higher sums are being substituted into existing law. In practical terms, that means the legal trigger points are being reset. That reset matters because thresholds decide how much formality the law asks of you. For trustees, they can affect the kind of accounts you prepare and the level of outside checking required. For donors, they can affect cancellation rights and the disclosures tied to fundraising appeals. For charity workers, they shape the compliance checks that need to happen before a campaign starts or a financial year closes.
If you help run a charity, this is the moment to check four things: your gross income, your asset level, whether you prepare group accounts, and the date your financial year ends. Then compare those facts with the new figures, not the old ones. The note published alongside the Order on legislation.gov.uk says its effect is to raise the financial thresholds that trigger some regulatory requirements. That sentence is dry, but it tells you exactly where to look. If you give to charities, keep the date in mind as well as the amount. Older £100 protections can still matter for appeals, agreements and payments made before 30 September 2026. After that, the new limits apply. This is one of those legal changes that looks technical until you realise it shapes everyday decisions across the charity world.