Business guidance

Food, Drink & Hospitality

Check which extra licences your hospitality business needs

A premises licence does not cover gaming machines, civil weddings, one-off events, accommodation for several unrelated people, members' clubs or shisha. Each needs its own permission, mostly from your council, and a wedding approval or HMO licence must be in place before you start.

Charities & Social Enterprise

Claim Gift Aid on donations

How charities and CASCs can claim Gift Aid to boost donations by 25%, plus use GASDS to claim on small cash and contactless donations without declarations.

Charities & Social Enterprise

OSCR annual reporting and charity accounts

Every charity on the Scottish Charity Register must file an annual return and accounts with OSCR within 9 months of its year end. The return includes an online monitoring return, and your gross income decides whether you prepare receipts and payments or accruals accounts and what external scrutiny you need.

Charities & Social Enterprise

Registration rules for trade unions, political parties and charities

What you must register depends on what your organisation is. A party that fields candidates under its name must register with the Electoral Commission, trade unions file an annual return with the Certification Officer, and charitable bodies may need to register with their nation's charity regulator.

Charities & Social Enterprise

Report annually to the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland

Every charity registered in Northern Ireland must send the Charity Commission an Annual Monitoring Return, with accounts, a trustees' report and an examiner's or auditor's report, within 10 months of its year end. Your income decides the type of accounts and whether you need an independent examination or an audit.

Charities & Social Enterprise

Respond to an OSCR inquiry

If the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) opens an inquiry, the trustees must reply fully and honestly by each deadline. OSCR can then close it, make recommendations, give directions or suspend people, or ask the Court of Session to act. You can ask for a review and appeal.

Charities & Social Enterprise

Trustee duties under Scottish charity law

Your legal duties as a charity trustee in Scotland, including the general duties under the 2005 Act, the expanded disqualification criteria introduced by the 2023 Act, and what to do if things go wrong.

Charities & Social Enterprise

Understanding OSCR and Scottish charity regulation

Charity regulation is devolved, so charities in Scotland answer to the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator under Scottish law, chiefly the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005. OSCR registers charities, monitors their returns and investigates misconduct, and the 2023 Act strengthened its powers.

Tax & Finance

Check if you need to register for VAT

You must register for VAT when your taxable turnover passes the registration threshold in any rolling 12 months, or when you expect it to pass the threshold within the next 30 days alone. Under the first test, register within 30 days of the end of the month. Late registration brings penalties and backdated VAT.

Compliance & Legal

File your confirmation statement

File a confirmation statement every 12 months, within 14 days after your review period ends. Filing late is a criminal offence for the company and its officers.

Premises & Operations

Meet your business waste duty of care

Every business that produces, stores or disposes of waste has a duty of care under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and stays responsible after it hands the waste on. Use only registered waste carriers, complete waste transfer notes correctly, and follow the stricter rules for hazardous waste.

Compliance & Legal

Verify your identity for Companies House as a director or PSC

Yes, if you are an individual director or PSC of a UK company, or an individual director of an overseas company registered in the UK. Corporate directors and officers of corporate PSCs are not yet required to verify. The transition for existing directors and PSCs ends on 17 November 2026.