VIZ-A-VIZ, registered as a charity in 1994, failed to submit accounting documents for the financial years ending 31 December 2014 and 2015. A final warning letter was issued by the commission on 30 January 2017 – the outstanding documents were filed in March.

In 2013 the commission began a concerted effort to clamp down on charities’ accounts filing. Their ‘class action’ inquiry focused on charities that had failed to file accounts for two or more years out of the last five, and their focus narrowed on those with last know annual income of more than £150,000.

In VIZ-A-VIZ’s case, the commission found ‘mismanagement and misconduct in the administration of the charity and a breach of their legal duties’. The charity’s subsequent filings accounted for £270,860 of income.

VIZ-A-VIZ was dissolved and removed from the register of charities on 22 June 2017.

Charity trustees have a legal duty to submit annual returns, reports and accounting documents if annual income is more than £25,000. Even for those under that threshold, they should be able to produce financial information on request. All charities with an income of more than £10,000 must submit an annual return.

Report by Kevin Reed