Your external auditor may well assist you with completing your Trust’s AAR, or you may decide to complete it yourself. Whether you prepare it yourself, or your auditor does it for you it is worth making note of the following key points, and the things that have changed from prior years.
Key Points – AAR 2019/20
- The online AAR for 2019/20 is open from 10th November
- The submission deadline for completed returns is 23 February 2021. This deadline has been extended due to the impact of COVID-19
- The ESFA are running several MS Teams calls, and virtual chats to help support those preparing the AAR. Details of these calls and chats can be found here
- In addition to the calls and chats, the ESFA have provided some great resources to help with the completion of the AAR. One of the best ones is the excel form that you can use to prepare your information in, check that there are no internal conflicts and then use it to populate the online return
- Another great resource is the mapping of your pension report (from three well know actuaries) to the relevant sections of the AAR. If you have not seen this it is well worth looking at as it will make getting the pension disclosures right so much easier. A guide to the pension section of the AAR can be found here
- For those of you who are old hands at preparing AAR’s, it is still worth looking at the latest guidance as there are always amendments and adjustments to the AAR year on year. Some of them are requiring additional information, and others are to improve the user experience. Details of the requirements for this year can be found here.
The key changes from the 18/19 return are:
- Counterparty reporting is now limited to transactions with the academy sector
- New SOFA and benchmarking fields regarding Coronovirus grant income
- Adjustments to the SOFA and benchmarking sections to reflect the new requirements to report rental and lettings income separately from income from facilities and services
- A new SOFA field to report revenue expenditure in respect of capital funding
- Expansion of employee emoluments reporting requirements
- Expanded related party transactions requirements in respect of Trustee remuneration
- A new table in respect of prior year data for employee emoluments.
The next step
If you need any support or guidance in respect of your AAR please do not hesitate to contact your usual UHY adviser.
