Does my small charity need to file a CT600?

By Max Szolcek, founder of Dormant Return. Last updated 18 September 2026

Most small charities pay no Corporation Tax, because almost everything a charity receives is exempt. That does not always mean there is nothing to file. The question that decides it is not how much money came in, but whether HMRC has asked you for a return.

The short answer

A charity has to send HMRC a Company Tax Return in two situations. The first is when HMRC asks for one. HMRC's own wording is that you must complete a tax return "when HMRC asks you to, even if no tax is due". The second is when the charity has income or gains that no relief or exemption covers.

If neither applies, there may be nothing to file at all, and a lot of small charities buy software they did not need. So check the first question before you spend anything.

How would you know HMRC has asked? A notice to deliver a Company Tax Return, form CT603, arrives by post and sets a deadline. HMRC also does this in waves: its charity guidance says that "every few years HMRC issues a formal notification to all charities to file a tax return". So a quiet decade followed by a letter is normal, not a sign that something has gone wrong.

If the notice has arrived, the return is due even with nothing to pay. A nil return still counts as a return, and the late filing penalties are the same as for any company.

What counts as exempt

Nearly everything a small charity lives on is exempt from Corporation Tax, as long as it is spent on the charity's purposes: donations, grants, legacies, membership subscriptions and the charity's own primary purpose trading, which means trading that is itself the charitable activity.

The exemption people trip over is fundraising trading that is not the charity's purpose, like selling Christmas cards or running a bar at an event. That profit is still exempt if the turnover is small enough. HMRC's limits work off the charity's total income:

Charity's total income	Exempt non-primary trading turnover
Under £32,000	£8,000
£32,001 to £320,000	25% of total income
Over £320,000	£80,000

Those are turnover figures, not profit. Above the limit the profit on that trading becomes taxable, which means a real tax computation and, usually, an accountant. Most charities run a trading subsidiary for exactly this reason.

Not every charity files a CT600, and this is where it gets confusing

Which form you owe depends on how the charity is constituted, and the answer surprises people.

A charitable trust does not file a CT600 at all. It is not in the Corporation Tax system. A trust sends HMRC a Trust and Estate Tax Return, form SA900, with its own charity supplementary pages. If you are a trustee of a charitable trust and someone has sold you CT600 software, it is the wrong form.

Everything else is inside Corporation Tax Self Assessment and does file a Company Tax Return:

A charitable company, normally limited by guarantee and registered at Companies House.
A charitable incorporated organisation, a CIO, which is a body corporate registered only with the Charity Commission.
An unincorporated association, which is the shape most small local charities and clubs take.
Bodies created by Royal Charter or Act of Parliament, and industrial and provident societies.

A CIO or an unincorporated association has no Companies House number. That is not a problem for the return: HMRC's form allows the company number to be left out, and it is the Corporation Tax reference that matters.

What HMRC actually wants

A Company Tax Return for a charity has three parts, sent together:

The CT600 itself. For a charity whose income is all exempt, the tax boxes are nil.
Supplementary page CT600E, the claim to exemption. HMRC's guidance says this section "should be completed in all cases". It is where the charity states that it is claiming exemption (box E15) and that all its income and gains are exempt and have been, or will be, applied for charitable purposes only (box E20). It also carries an analysis of income and expenditure, taken from the accounts.
The accounts for the period.

Two concessions make this much lighter than an ordinary company's return, and neither is well known.

No tax computation is needed. An ordinary company that traded must attach a tagged tax computation showing how the accounts profit becomes the taxable profit, and there is no "nothing to pay" reason code to get out of it. A charity claiming full exemption is different. HMRC's charity guidance states that "no computation is required where the Company Tax Return supplementary page CT600E is completed and confirms that all income and gains of the charity are exempt from tax".

The accounts can be an ordinary PDF. Companies have to file their accounts inside the return tagged in iXBRL, which is why filing a CT600 needs software at all. HMRC accepts accounts in PDF format from a smaller charity, meaning one whose income, together with any subsidiary it wholly owns, does not exceed £6.5 million. So the accounts your trustees already approved can go as they are.

Community amateur sports clubs: the same page, different limits

Page CT600E covers charities and community amateur sports clubs together, and HMRC's wording throughout reads "charity/CASC". A registered club claims exemption in exactly the same way. What differs is how much it can earn before the exemption runs out:

Turnover from trading with non-members is exempt up to £50,000 for the period.
Property and rental income is exempt up to £30,000.
Non-member trading and property receipts together must not exceed £100,000 in an accounting period. Above that the club's registration itself may be affected, which is a conversation to have with HMRC rather than something the return settles.

All three are gross receipts, not profit. Income from members is mutual trading and sits outside the charge entirely.

Deadlines, and what late costs

The return is due 12 months after the end of the accounting period. The filing penalties bite whether or not there is tax to pay: £200 the day it is late, another £200 three months later, and £1,000 each in place of those flat amounts if the return is late three times in a row. For a charity with no tax to pay, that is the whole exposure, and it is real money out of charitable funds.

Worth knowing: HMRC's own free filing service closed on 31 March 2026, and it supported page CT600E. Charities that used it every few years have lost the same tool dormant companies lost, and have to use commercial software now.

Filing it with us for £5

Dormant Return files a charity or community amateur sports club return for £5. You key the CT600E income, expenditure and other current assets (E175) from your accounts, upload the accounts as a PDF, and we build the CT600 with page CT600E and file all of it to HMRC under your own Government Gateway sign-in. HMRC's acceptance receipt is emailed to you.

Box E175 includes ordinary current and reserve bank account balances recorded as cash at bank. For periods starting before 1 April 2026, enter the amount held at the end of the period. For periods starting on or after that date, HMRC asks for additions during the period instead. Use the figures from your accounts.

We do not prepare your accounts and we do not check them. They are filed exactly as you supply them, which is the honest description of what a £5 service can do.

All of the following must be true:

HMRC has given the charity or club a Corporation Tax reference and asked for a Company Tax Return, or you know one is due for the period.
It is a charitable company, a charitable incorporated organisation or an unincorporated association, or a club registered with HMRC as a CASC. Not a charitable trust.
All the income and gains for the period are exempt from tax and have been, or will be, applied for charitable or qualifying purposes only.
Any non-primary-purpose trading was inside the small trading exemption, or inside a club's £50,000 and £30,000 limits.
Total income for the period was under £6.5 million.
No legacies were received in the period, and there are no non-qualifying investments or loans.
A single accounting period of 12 months or less.
The accounts are prepared and you have them as a PDF of 4 MB or less.

To start, enter the charity's name on the home page, then choose Filing for a charity or sports club? under the name field. A checklist confirms the above before any figures are asked for.

Who we cannot file for, and where to go instead

Three cases, each with a different answer. A charitable trust needs form SA900, which we do not produce. A charity with income that is not exempt owes tax and a full computation, which page CT600E does not replace. And a charity above £6.5 million of income has to file its accounts tagged in iXBRL rather than as a PDF.

For all three, use HMRC's list of commercial software suppliers for Corporation Tax, or an accountant who works with charities. Charity tax has more corners than company tax and an hour of advice is usually worth it.

Small charity or sports club with nothing to pay? Dormant Return builds the CT600 and page CT600E from your figures, attaches the accounts you already have, and files them to HMRC. £5 one-off, refunded automatically if HMRC rejects the return.

Start your charity's return