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bodies but that instead the institute and its charity wish to use the funds in another way – perhaps through grant making. A detailed checklist of questions that religious institutes should be asking themselves when carrying out any form of nancial planning exercise, particularly long term nancial planning, is shown below:
A nancial planning checklist
Property issues
Any form of forward planning must involve a detailed consideration of property needs. One of the main sources of inward cash ow for many institutes over the next decade may be the proceeds from the sale of properties. Some such proceeds will need to be reinvested into property but some will be available
to increase investment levels. In most cases, because property will be such an important asset for many institutes, the need to give careful thought regarding the institute’s future property strategy is of paramount importance and now
is the time to be doing just that. Ideally institute’s should carry out a review of their property needs regularly – at least every ve years. As property markets begin to recover, the institute will want to be in a position of knowing exactly what its strategy is so that it may implement decisions at the best
possible time.
Such a review will involve assessing the state of existing properties and future property needs. It will involve asking a number of questions, including but not necessarily limited to the following:
O What major repair and/or refurbishment work is required to existing properties in the next few years?
O Will any extensions or major building projects be undertaken? If
so, have proper costings been obtained making allowance for all known costs including any VAT payable? Has professional advice been sought? (It may, for example, be possible in the case of a “new build” to use a separate legal entity called a “design and build” company to construct the property and hence obtain VAT relief on professional fees in addition to build costs)
Chapter 4
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