Aniridia Network UK is extremely pleased to announce that we have been recognised as a charity. Our reference number is XT26830.

It is a big step forward as it gives us an additional level of respectability and other benefits.

HM Revenue & Customs have registered us as a charity for tax purposes – backdated to 16th May 2009.
This means we can now claim Gift Aid on our income, including donations and membership fees.

We can also benefit from discounts and special services for charities. This includes websites where we can raise and accept raise money such as PayPal, ebay, Everyclick and Charities Aid Foundation.

Internally it reinforces our drive to be more professional in how we run the organisation as it affects the perception of other charities.

But we are not registered with the Charity Comission. They are currently not accepting applications from organisations with an annual income less than £5,000. With your help fundraising we can achieve that but currently our income is in the hundreds of pounds. Nevertheless we will look to follow Charity Commission guidance and good practice.
HMRC recognition should give us the same benefits as Charity Commission registration though we are expecting that some businesses may take some convincing, The HMRC route is just as rigorous. They check:

• our aims are charitable
• how we govern ourselves
• that no  one involved with the running of the charity have any history of fraud or tax evasion.

We passed on all counts and are now looking to the bright future this gives us.