The CT600E is the Corporation Tax supplementary page for charities and Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs). It is where a charity or CASC claims exemption from Corporation Tax on its charitable income and gains (for a charity, under Part 11 Corporation Tax Act 2010 and, for gains, s256 Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992; for a CASC, under Chapter 9 of Part 13 Corporation Tax Act 2010), and reports the income, expenditure and assets that support the claim. In Tax Optimiser the CT600E is prepared inside the normal Corp Tax workspace and filed automatically alongside the CT600 — you don't submit it separately.
The one setting that turns it on
There is a single trigger for the CT600E, and it lives on the organisation, not the accounting period: the company's Corporation Tax company type must be set to either Charity or Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC). There is no separate “include CT600E” checkbox — choosing one of these two company types is what makes the page appear.
The easiest place to set it is the organisation’s settings: open Organisation settings, and on the Company Details tab choose Charity (or Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC)) in Corporation Tax company type, then save.
The same choice is also offered as Company Type on the first step of the File CT600 with HMRC wizard (the same table where you confirm the director accepting the declaration), so you can check or correct it just before filing.
Because the setting is stored against the organisation, it carries forward to future accounting periods until you change it, so you normally only pick it once.
Companies owned by a charity
A company that is only owned by a charity, such as a trading subsidiary, is not itself a charity. It has no exemption to claim and does not file a CT600E. For these, choose the company type Owned by a charity (not itself a charity).
HMRC groups both cases under one code, so the return still shows company type 8 in box 4. The difference is inside Tax Optimiser: with Owned by a charity selected there is no CT600E page, box 115 is not ticked, and the profits are taxed in the normal way (with the small profits rate and marginal relief where they apply). The subsidiary normally removes its tax bill by donating its profits to the parent charity, which is entered as a qualifying charitable donation in the usual way.
Check existing subsidiaries. If a trading subsidiary was previously set to Charity, change it to Owned by a charity. Left as Charity, it would file a CT600E and, with the default “all exempt” claim, have its profits removed from charge.
Filling in the CT600E
Once the company type is Charity or CASC, reload the accounting period and a CT600E — Charity / CASC item appears in the period's left-hand menu, under the Corp Tax calculations. Open it and you'll find four tabs:
- Claim Exemption — the HMRC repayment reference (box E5) and the charity's Charity Commission registration number, or OSCR number (box E10), whether you are claiming exemption for all or part of the period (box E15), whether all income and gains were applied for charitable purposes (box E20 or E25), and whether any tax was over-claimed in the period (box E45).
- Income — the charity's income analysed by type (boxes E50 to E88: trading turnover, investment income, land and buildings, Gift Aid, other charities, gifts of shares and property, other sources and legacies). The total is box E90.
- Expenditure — expenditure as shown in the accounts (boxes E95 to E120), totalled in box E125.
- Assets & Legacy Payments — the asset boxes, disposals in the period, the investments questions and the list of legacies received.
Each row on screen shows the box number it fills on the official form. Enter what applies — money boxes you leave blank are simply not filed. Figures are filed in whole pounds, and the totals shown on screen are the whole-pound totals that go on the return. Your entries are saved per accounting period, so each year keeps its own CT600E figures.
The charity's accounts and the figures
The CT600E figures and the Corporation Tax computation both come from the period's trial balance, so enter, import or sync it first (see Getting the figures in: the trial balance). Setting the company type to Charity does not change the format of the accounts by itself: they are still prepared as company accounts, with turnover and a profit and loss account.
To prepare the accounts in charity format (a Statement of Financial Activities by fund, a trustees' annual report and an independent examiner's report, or receipts and payments accounts for a small charity that is not a company), tick Charity accounts (beta) in Organisation settings. This is available to accountant firms on the beta programme; see Charity accounts. With it turned on, the Income tab has Fill income and expenditure from the charity accounts, which fills boxes E50 to E120 from the accounts for you to check and save.
Assets, disposals and investments
The Assets & Legacy Payments tab has four parts.
- Assets (boxes E135 to E175) — tangible fixed assets, UK investments, shares in and loans to controlled companies, overseas investments, loans and non-trade debtors, and other current assets. For accounting periods starting on or after 1 April 2026 these boxes report assets added during the period. For earlier periods enter the assets held at the end of the period; they print in the same boxes on the form.
- Qualifying investments and loans — charities only. Tick box E180 if every investment and loan was a qualifying one. If any were not, leave it unticked and enter the value of the non-qualifying investments and loans in box E185. HMRC accepts one or the other, never both. Box E190 is the number of subsidiary or associated companies the charity controls at the end of the period, leaving out any that were dormant throughout.
- Disposals in the period (boxes E130, E140, E150 and E160) — the total consideration received for tangible fixed assets, UK investments, shares in and loans to controlled companies, and overseas investments disposed of in the period. Leave blank where there were none.
- Legacy payments (boxes E195 and E200) — one row for each legacy received: the legator's name, address, UK postcode (or tick Overseas), the date and the amount. The rows must not add up to more than legacy income (box E88) on the Income tab. If you cannot list every legacy, the balance is filed as a single combined row marked with HMRC's “X” placeholder, so box E200 always agrees with box E88.
How the exemption is claimed
Whether the exemption is full or partial is expressed inside the CT600E itself, not by a separate switch. On the Claim Exemption tab, Claiming exemption for all or part of the period and All income / gains applied for charitable purposes capture this. If some income or gains were not applied for charitable purposes (for a charity, non-charitable expenditure gives it a non-exempt amount under s493 CTA 2010; for a CASC, non-qualifying expenditure reduces the exemptions under s666 of that Act), choose Some not applied for charitable purposes and part of the exemption is restricted accordingly. The CT600E is always filed once the company type is charity or CASC; the period-by-period exemption position is what these fields describe.
What the computation does with the claim. With All exempt selected, the Corporation Tax computation removes every head of profit from charge itself — the profits chargeable page shows a Less: profits exempt from Corporation Tax line and CT600 boxes 155 to 315 file as nil (box 145 turnover is still reported). You do not need to add an accounting or income adjustment to get there, and the accounts themselves are never adjusted: the surplus stays in the SOFA. The computation document also gains a Charitable exemption page setting out the claim and the profits removed from charge.
With Some not applied for charitable purposes selected, only the non-charitable profit is taxable and the computation does not split this for you — exclude the exempt income with an Income adjustment on the Adjustments tab so that only non-primary-purpose trading above the small trading limit (or income not applied for charitable purposes) is left in charge.
If you answer No to claiming exemption. No exemption is applied and the computation charges the whole profit. HMRC's form has no way to say “not claiming” — a CT600E always carries box E15 — so the return is filed with box E25 (some income may not be exempt, and form CT600 has been completed) rather than box E20, whatever is selected in the second question. A note on the tab confirms this when No is selected.
Checks before you file
Tax Optimiser checks the CT600E against HMRC's rules and shows an error on the calculation until each is fixed, so the return is not rejected after you send it:
- The repayment reference (box E5) must be in HMRC's format: a letter prefix such as XR, XN, XT, CH, CR, EW, ST or NI (or Z plus a letter), followed by one to nine digits, with no spaces. Leave it blank if the charity has none.
- The registration number (box E10) must be six to eight letters or digits, with no spaces or punctuation.
- No box can be negative.
- Trading costs (box E95) need trading turnover (box E50) above nil, and land and buildings costs (box E100) need land and buildings income (box E60) above nil.
- Boxes E180 and E185 cannot both be completed.
- Box E190 cannot be more than 999.
- The legacy rows cannot total more than box E88, and no legacy can be dated after the end of the period.
Periods longer than 12 months
A CT600E cannot cover more than 12 months. Where the period of account is longer, two returns are filed and each carries its own CT600E. You still enter one set of figures for the whole period; Tax Optimiser divides them between the two returns:
- Income, expenditure and disposals are split by days, the same way the computation splits the profit.
- Legacies follow their dates: each row goes with the return its date falls in. Rows with no date, and any balance of box E88 not listed, go with the second return.
- Assets are split by days where they report additions in the period (periods starting on or after 1 April 2026). For earlier periods they are a period-end position and go on the second return.
- Boxes E185 and E190 go on the second return.
- The claim, the over-claimed tax answer and the box E180 tick appear on both.
A note at the top of the CT600E page reminds you of this whenever the period is long. See the long period of account guide for how the rest of the return is split.
Filing and the PDF
When you submit the return, Tax Optimiser flags the CT600E in the CT600's supplementary pages (box 115) and sends its data to HMRC automatically as part of the same submission — there is nothing extra to file.
For a copy for your records or the client, use the View and Download buttons beside CT600E — Charity / CASC in the supplementary pages list, which produce the official CT600E form populated with your figures. You’ll find them under CT600 Document at the top of the Corporation Tax screen.
On a long period there is one for each return. The form's declaration (name, status and date, boxes E30 to E40) is completed from the declaration on the main return, so it shows the director or trustee and the date chosen when you file. If there are more than twelve legacies, the legacy schedule continues on extra sheets, each marked with its sheet number.
Switching company type later
Take care changing the company type after you've entered CT600E data. If you switch the organisation's Corporation Tax company type away from Charity or CASC — including to Owned by a charity — the CT600E figures for that period are removed: the page no longer applies, so its data is cleared. Only change the company type if the company genuinely is not a charity/CASC for that return.
Related: Submitting to HMRC and Companies House.
