Helping people find their lives again - RNIB

y volunteers. Income from trading in
subsidiary undertakings is transferred to the
charity by covenanting the profits of those
undertakings. Donations are accounted for as
soon as their amount and receipt is certain.
Donations include Gift Aid based on amounts
recoverable at the accounting date.
Pecuniary legacies are recognised as they are
received. Residuary legacies are recognised at
the earlier of receipt or agreement of estate
accounts. Reversionary interests involving a
life tenant are not recognised due to the
uncertainties of valuing them.
Investment income, interest on deposits and
income in connection with services to people
with sight problems is recognised on an
accruals basis. Where an incoming resource is
received in advance of the activity to be
performed then the incoming resource is
deferred and included in creditors. Investment
income arising on endowment funds is
credited to the appropriate fund in accordance
with the prescribed conditions.
1.5 Resources expended
(a) Expenditure, including irrecoverable VAT, is
accounted for on an accruals basis.
(b) Included within charitable activity costs is
an apportionment of public awareness
expenditure representing the costs incurred by
RNIB in educating the public to be aware of
the needs of people with sight loss.
(c) Support costs include both group and
corporate costs and are incurred in support of
direct service expenditures. Allocation of
support service costs is on a mixture of bases
including a staff time-based system of
apportionment.
(d) Fundraising expenses include those costs
incurred in raising donations and legacies.
(e) Governance costs are incurred in relation
to the running of the charity. This includes
strategic planning and attending to the
statutory affairs of the charity. An analysis of
these costs can be found in note 3 – Total
resources expended.
(f) Grants payable are charged to the SOFA
when a constructive obligation exists, that is
when the recipient has been informed.
1.6 Fixed assets
(a) Service properties
RNIB has implemented Financial Reporting
Standard 15 (FRS15) in preparing its financial
statements and under the transitional
provisions of the standard has adopted the
valuations at which these properties were
included at 31 March 1999, which will not be
updated.
Depreciation, and any impairment, is provided
so as to write off the cost of property,
excluding land, over its expected useful life,
which for freehold properties is not considered
to be in excess of 50 years. Short leaseholds
are written off over the period of the lease
and long-term leases over 50 years.
(b) Service properties under construction
RNIB has separately categorised those service
properties that are under construction and
have not yet been brought into use. The cost
of such assets excludes finance costs incurred
relating to temporary financing throughout
the construction phase.
40 RNIB annual report and accounts 2008/09