Legislation introduced in 2010 requires charities, including churches, that reclaim Gift Aid to demonstrate that trustees (which for churches means PCC members) and any church staff or volunteers, who “manage” church funds pass a “fit and proper persons” test.
What is the test for?
The purpose of the fit and proper persons test is to help ensure that charity or church funds, including Gift Aid repayments, are used only for the church’s charitable purposes. Failure to comply will mean, amongst other things, that Gift Aid may not be repaid to the church. PCCs must now be ready and able to demonstrate, is asked, that they have taken reasonable steps to ensure that their trustees and their managers are fit and proper persons.
What do we need to do?
Compliance is not at all difficult; help and advice can be found in the right hand column. Start by downloading our Liverpool
guide to the Fit and Proper Persons test. This will tell you what you need to do now, and what you'll need to do in future.
Please note that the Gift Aid Secretary, who is usually the person nominated to HMRC as the Authorised Official, must
additionally read the HMRC detailed guidance on Fit and Proper Persons and
sign a declaration to that effect. This is done in the ChV1 Form, so read on.
