Charity registration —Political purpose and public benefit reconsidered (The IFTCC v Charity Commission)
Private Client analysis: In The International Foundation for Therapeutic and Counselling Choice v The Charity Commission for England and Wales, the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) considered again the vexed question of whether an entity was established for purposes that were exclusively charitable and for the public benefit. The FTT upheld the Charity Commission’s decision to refuse to register the IFTCC as a charitable incorporated organisation. It found that in encouraging individuals to subscribe to specific doctrinal beliefs, the IFTCC was not fulfilling a purely educative purpose, but rather, acting partly for political purposes. This is a complete bar to achieving charitable status. The FTT also dismissed two further arguments of the IFTCC: first, challenges raised under the European Convention on Human Rights, and secondly, the IFTCC’s assertion that the FTT ought order registration on the basis that similar organisations had been registered. Written by Emma Hynes, barrister at Gatehouse Chambers.