UK charities · bounded public guide
Find the official register, understand conditional tax relief, read money and control honestly, then approach an organisation through the route it publishes for help.
Identity starts at the source
Use the exact charity number when possible. A public brand, registered charity and trading subsidiary can be different legal entities. Absence from one register is not, by itself, proof that an organisation is not charitable.
England and Wales
Search registered charities by name or number and inspect their stated work and filed information. Some charities are excepted, exempt or outside the ordinary registration threshold.
Search at the official source ↗Scotland
Search the Scottish Charity Register by exact number, purpose, status, form, geography or income. Read OSCR as the source of the Scottish record.
Search at the official source ↗Northern Ireland
Use CCNI guidance and the register search for Northern Ireland identity, purposes, activities and annual reporting information.
Search at the official source ↗Conditional relief, not a magic label
TaxSorted reads conditional relief alongside the restriction of resources to recognised charitable purposes and public benefit, trustee duties and public reporting. This is analysis of the structure, not a statutory purpose statement or a reward for a brand appearing benevolent.
HMRC recognition, the source and use of income, trading activity and the exact tax all matter. Non-qualifying income or non-charitable spending can be taxed; VAT and trading follow their own rules.
Stewardship is not share ownership
Trustees direct and steward a charity under its governing document. Members may have defined votes. In England and Wales, a corporate charity can hold assets in its own name; an unincorporated charity may need trustees or a custodian to hold property. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own legal forms and rules. A charity can also control a separate trading subsidiary. Calling all of that “ownership” hides the real duties and boundaries.
The governing document defines the charitable purposes and decision structure. Resources must be managed for those purposes and public benefit.
Returns, accounts, trustee reports and external scrutiny depend on jurisdiction, legal form, income, assets and reporting period.
Trustees steward the charity, make collective decisions and protect its money, property, people and reputation. Payment and private benefit are constrained.
Charitable status does not remove employment, safeguarding, fundraising, company, VAT, PAYE, data-protection or other activity-specific duties.
Read the accounting boundary
Always carry the reporting period, currency, source precision and whether the figures describe the charity alone or a consolidated group.
Reach the service, not a private person
The people and belief boundary
Advancement of religion can be an official charitable-purpose category. This guide does not turn it into a denomination map, congregation list or inference about trustees, staff, donors, members, attendees or beneficiaries. Publicly listed names and addresses are not copied into a TaxSorted bulk people service.
No local charity mirror. No bulk people export. No person-to-religion graph.
A distribution door with a visible limit
The bounded API describes sources, official register doors, legal forms, tax treatments, obligations, funding, finance disclosures, control and help routes. It does not reproduce a national charity database. A later organisation snapshot needs source rights, a complete inclusion rule, stable identifiers, correction and update rules, human approval and a confidential safety-reporting route.
Reviewed 10 July 2026. This is public research, not legal, tax, accounting, safeguarding or grant advice. Check the current regulator, HMRC and organisation before acting.