I'm the new-ish (12 months) treasurer of our local village rooms -hall in common parlance. It was registered as a charity aeons ago. It is helpful for us because the land and building was gifted to the village in 1919 and can be safeguarded in perpetuity under a deed with the charity commission. Operationally it makes little or no difference except for one thig - rates/council tax. I think local authorities may vary in the 4 nations, but in England and in our county we get 100% relief on our business rates which helps us keep our hire rates for community users down.
If you don't own land/property I don't think Charitable Status is much of an advantage.
As a charity you don't have to charge VAT on most things, but we turnover less than £10k a year so don't have to anyway.
Contrary to common myth, we cannot relcaim VAT on the things we buy or services we use so there is no operating cost advantage.
Suppliers like energy and performing rights society treat community groups the same as a charity, so it matters not if we are a charity or not for those purposes.
Dealing with the articles of association might be tortuous on setup. Our from 1924 referred to a management committee with things like " a representative of the men's club" - so we have just been through it and updated - resolution of trustees etc. and forms to fill in but our Chairman is good at that sort of stuff so we didn't incurr any lawyer fees. In theory someone needs to check that the trustees are not undischarged bankrupts nor are they detained under the mental health act and one or two other things that would disqualify them. You do need trustee and officer liability insurance otherwise no-one sensible would act as a trustee and you don't want senseless trustees.
Once set up, its not onerous. I do an annual return and because we are so small its only a 4 line summary. You must have trustees and keep the list up to date with the CC. You do have to make sure that what you do is in line with the charitable purpose that you have in your trust deed/articles.
I think the key thing here is "why are we doing it", all organisations differ. Key questions might be do we own land or property, do we own substantial assets, would we get lots of donations if we were a charity, do we turnover more than £85 k a year (VAT)?
