Whilst we all wait with bated breath to see what 19 July will bring, the Government has in the meantime tweaked its coronavirus guidance for charities.

There is a new approach by the Charity Commission to annual return filing extensions, hidden slightly in the section 'AGMs and other meetings: postponing or cancelling meetings'. The Commission will be contacting all charities with a filing extension that was in place by 30 June 2021 and these charities will need to meet their filing commitments by 30 September 2021. Between 1 July 2021 and 30 September 2021, if you have an imminent filing date and you are unable to meet your filing obligation for a Covid-19 related reason, you can still apply for a new filing extension. The Commission will allow a fixed 3-month extension from the date of your application.

The section on charity meetings has also been updated to reflect the position from 21 June i.e. if it is still difficult to hold face-to-face meetings, that charities should hold trustee or member meetings online or by telephone. Whilst the Commission still says that it "will understand" if you do this even though you have no power to do so in your governing document if your charity does not have the power it is going to be important, certainly after 19 July, that you alter your governing document to allow for this.

The section on insolvency help for charitable companies and charitable incorporated organisations has been updated with revised deadlines, for example, moratoriums offering companies and CIOs breathing space from debt enforcement action have been extended to 30 September 2021.