Part 1: Purposes, Powers and Governing Documents Section 10: Amendment of powers to release restrictions on spending capital Availability of sections 281 and 282 to corporate charities
Prior to commencement of the Act, both section 281 and 282 were expressed to be limited to charities which are not companies or other bodies corporate. However, it was often assumed that a corporate charity’s permanent endowment is always held on trust and that it is itself a separate (unincorporated) charity. Accordingly, sections 281 and 282 were generally considered to be available in respect of the permanent endowment of a corporate charity, despite the legislation stating that it is not available to corporate charities. Section 10(2)(a) (in respect of section 281) and section 10(3)(b) (in respect of section 282) remove the ambiguity by omitting any words limiting the powers to unincorporated charities. Accordingly, the statutory power to release restrictions on spending permanent endowment under sections 281 and 282 is available to corporate charities.