The Charity Commission for England and Wales is urging charity trustees and their professional advisers to check new accounting rules applying in 2026 following changes to reporting standards and statutory financial thresholds.

The warning was published on 16 September 2026 and concerns charities in England and Wales.

The Commission has reorganised and updated its guidance, including separate instructions for the three principal types of structure: a trust or unincorporated association, a charitable company and a charitable incorporated organisation, or CIO.

The changes have two main sources.

The first is the new version of the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice, known as SORP 2026.

It applies to charities across the United Kingdom for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2026.

SORP provides the accounting and reporting framework for charities to which it applies and includes new requirements for recognising and reporting certain types of income and lease arrangements.

The Commission also points to increased transparency expectations for high-income charities.

The second major change concerns statutory financial thresholds in England and Wales.

For financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026, the Government has increased the thresholds at which certain accounting and scrutiny requirements apply.

The threshold for preparing accruals accounts rises to income above £500,000, double the previous £250,000 level.

The threshold for having accounts checked by an independent examiner rises to above £40,000, from £25,000.

For a mandatory audit, the new threshold is gross income above £1.5 million, or gross income above £500,000 combined with gross assets above £5 million.

The previous main audit threshold was £1 million, according to the Charity Commission.

These changes do not mean charities below those thresholds no longer have to keep records or prepare accounts.

The Commission states that all charities must prepare accounts, while registered charities must also prepare a trustees’ annual report.

Those documents must be made available to the public on request.

The exact rules vary according to legal form, income, assets and other characteristics. That is why the Commission recommends using the guidance specific to each organisation’s structure.

The SORP changes and threshold changes do not have exactly the same application date.

SORP 2026 applies to financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2026.

The new England and Wales thresholds apply to financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026.

That distinction must remain clear.

The Charity Commission also links the update to the importance of financial transparency for public trust.

Figures cited by the regulator show that charities spent around £100.86 billion delivering positive societal impact in 2024, the latest year for which the cited analysis had a complete sector-income record.

The Commission’s research on public trust shows that donations reaching the end cause and the visibility of how much a charity has raised and spent are important drivers of confidence in the sector.

The regulator says the great majority of charities file their information on time, but the complexity of the accounting system can create difficulties.

Over the longer term, the Charity Commission says it will consider options for making charity accounting more straightforward while balancing reduced bureaucracy with accountability and public trust.

For small and medium-sized charities, higher thresholds may reduce certain reporting or scrutiny requirements depending on individual circumstances.

For larger organisations, SORP 2026 simultaneously introduces additional transparency expectations and accounting changes.

This article should not be treated as individual accounting advice. Trustees should check their organisation’s legal structure and financial position against the official guidance.

Charities that also operate in Scotland or are registered in Northern Ireland should consult the relevant regulators in those jurisdictions because the institutional rules are not identical.

The Charity Commission’s message on 16 September is straightforward: 2026 changes both the reporting standard and some statutory thresholds, and trustees need to establish which new requirements apply before preparing their accounts.

Image: Charity Commission / GOV.UK, Crown copyright, Open Government Licence. Institutional image from the official release. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: All charities urged to check new rules for accounting for 2026 | GOV.UK.