The Monday after the first Sunday in Advent 2019 I had an interview in the church. The minister\’s opening salvo was that we want you to set up a charity that we control. I was stunned. They wanted me to set up a charity so that they could control everything I did outside the church. It was ridiculous but there was nothing I could do.
The weekend before I had given some thought to what kind of legal structure that I would set up as the project I was currently working on developed. The conclusion I had come to was that I would set up a limited company once that project was bringing in a reasonable amount of money. There were so many disavantages to both the way the project would operate and to me personally that a charity was out of question.
Unfortunately there was no discussion on the merits of a charity versus a business structure. There were two options either set up a charity or make sure that there were no links between what I was doing and the church. Part of my response to that situation was to set up a limited company.