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Charities & Not-For-Profits Law in Australia

Category Archives: Compliance

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Red Tape Relief for NSW Associations

By Bill d'Apice on Posted in acnc, charities, Compliance, Fundraising, Not-For-Profits, regulations

With effect from 1 October 2018, associations incorporated under the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 (NSW) which are registered charities will no longer have to submit annual financial reports to NSW Fair Trading as well as the Australian Charities & Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). The annual financial reports which these charities lodge with the ACNC will be securely… Continue Reading

External Conduct Standards for Charities

By Bill d'Apice on Posted in acnc, charities, Compliance, General, Governance, Liability & Risk, regulations, Treasury

The ACNC legislation passed in 2012 allowed for the creation of minimum external conduct standards that are required to be met by registered charities. To date, this issue seems to have been in the government’s too hard tray but Treasury has now issued draft external conduct standards and is seeking submissions on them. The draft… Continue Reading

Privacy – The Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme Commences Today

By Bill d'Apice and Belinda Marsh on Posted in Compliance, General, Governance, Liability & Risk, Privacy, Protection

Amendments to the Privacy Act introducing the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme commences today, 22 February 2018. The NDB scheme will apply to all organisations currently required to take steps to secure personal information, including but not limited to businesses and not-for-profit organisations with an annual turnover of $3 million, health service providers, TFN recipients… Continue Reading

Bill d’Apice recognised in the Chambers & Partners 2018 edition

By Bill d'Apice on Posted in Compliance, Fundraising, General, Governance, Liability & Risk, Privacy, Procurement, Protection, Tax Exemptions & DGR Status, Trade Marks

Bill d’Apice, Chairman and Partner, has been recognised in Chambers and Partners’ Asia Pacific 2018 edition as a Band 1 lawyer in the area of Charities. This is a well-deserved acknowledgement and recognition of Bill’s dedication to the Charity sector over many decades. From the Chambers Asia-Pacific guide:  “Bill d’Apice of Makinson & d’Apice in Sydney “has… Continue Reading

Remunerating Charity Board Members

By Bill d'Apice on Posted in Compliance, Fundraising, Governance

The ACNC have recently released an information paper ‘Remunerating Charity Board Members‘ for charities considering paying board members for their services as a board member. The term ‘board members’ is used throughout the information paper to generically refer to the responsible persons of a charity, such as committee members, directors or Trustees. The ACNC have… Continue Reading

School Building Funds’ Compliance Reminder

By Bill d'Apice on Posted in Compliance, Fundraising, General, Governance

A reminder to check your School Building Funds’ compliance with the ATO requirements. School and College Building Funds may attract the attention of the ATO’s compliance program this year.  The ATO develops and implements its compliance program annually, which identifies key areas for its compliance activities for the financial year.  The compliance program targets areas… Continue Reading

Reporting Deadline for Charities and Public Ancillary Funds Fast Approaching!

By Bill d'Apice and Anna Lewis on Posted in Compliance, Fundraising, General, Governance, Tax Exemptions & DGR Status

The ATO and ACNC are reminding charities and ancillary funds that the annual reporting period is fast approaching. Charities Charities registered with the ACNC (that have an annual year end of 30 June) have less than a week to submit their Annual Information Statement (AIS) to the ACNC. The AIS should be lodged via the… Continue Reading

ACNC Releases Commissioner’s Interpretation Statement on Public Benevolent Institutions

By Bill d'Apice and Anna Lewis on Posted in Compliance, Fundraising, General, Governance, Tax Exemptions & DGR Status

The ACNC Commissioner has just released the ACNC’s Interpretation Statement on Public Benevolent Institutions. The Interpretation Statement provides guidance on the ACNC’s interpretation of the law pertaining to Public Benevolent Institutions (PBI) and insight into how the ACNC and its staff will assess a charitable organisation’s entitlement for endorsement as a PBI. The Interpretation Statement… Continue Reading

ACNC Launches Registered Charity Tick

By Bill d'Apice on Posted in Compliance, Governance

Last week, the ACNC launched a “Registered Charity Tick”. The tick may be used by charities registered on the ACNC Charity Register which are up to date with ACNC financial reporting requirements and meet the regulator’s governance standards. The tick will allow donors to easily identify registered charitable organisations complying with these requirements. Ms Susan… Continue Reading

New NSW Associations Laws to Commence 1 September 2016

By Bill d'Apice and Anna Lewis on Posted in Compliance, General, Governance, Liability & Risk

New NSW Associations Laws to Commence on 1 September 2016 Important amendments to the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 (NSW) and the Associations Incorporation Regulation 2016 (NSW) will commence on 1 September 2016. These amendments will affect both existing Associations and the registration process for new Associations in NSW. The following summary highlights the key changes:… Continue Reading

The ACNC is here to stay!

By Bill d'Apice and Anna Lewis on Posted in Compliance, Fundraising, General, Governance, Tax Exemptions & DGR Status

Following two years of speculation regarding the future of the charity regulator, earlier today the Minister for Social Services, Christian Porter confirmed that the Federal Government has decided to keep the Australian Charities and Not-for Profits Commission (ACNC). The Liberal Government was elected on a platform to abolish the ACNC and a Bill to abolish… Continue Reading

ABR and ACNC enter into a data sharing agreement

By Bill d'Apice and Anna Lewis on Posted in Compliance, General, Governance

In a further step to provide a user-friendly and reliable source of data for the community, last week the Australian Business Register (ABR) and Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission (ACNC) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to facilitate data sharing between the two agencies. Occasionally, there are data discrepancies between the two registers… Continue Reading

Charity Sector Update

By Bill d'Apice and Anna Lewis on Posted in Compliance, Fundraising, General, Governance, Tax Exemptions & DGR Status

Future of the ACNC slowly becomes more certain Earlier this month, the (then) Minister for Social Services Scott Morrison stated that “there is very strong support for the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) and I don’t believe there would be any support in the Senate for there to be any change.” Many in the sector were… Continue Reading

Template Governing Document Released by the ACNC

By Bill d'Apice and Anna Lewis on Posted in Compliance, Fundraising, General, Governance

Last week the ACNC released a one page document to be used as a template governing document for registered charities who otherwise don’t have a constitution which satisfies the requirements of the ACNC. This template governing document is for charities which are created by an Act of Parliament or are governed by  Canon Law and… Continue Reading

Time is running out for Public Ancillary Funds: You have until 1 July 2015 to comply

By Bill d'Apice and Anna Lewis on Posted in Compliance, Fundraising, General, Governance, Tax Exemptions & DGR Status

On 2 March 2012, we reported that new laws had been introduced regarding the way public ancillary funds are structured, operated and wound up. What is a Public Ancillary Fund? A Public Ancillary Fund is a type of fund that is entitled to deductible gift recipient (DGR) status and provides a link between charitable organisations that… Continue Reading

The ACNC’s Future Becoming More Certain

By Bill d'Apice and Anna Lewis on Posted in Compliance, General, Governance, Tax Exemptions & DGR Status

The ACNC’s Future Becoming More Certain Barely 7 weeks into his new role Minister for Social Services, Scott Morrison declared on Friday that scrapping the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) is not a priority in his new portfolio. His statement to Fairfax Media demonstrates a clear and decisive policy shift away from his predecessor, former Social Services… Continue Reading

NSW School Funding: Changes to Not-For-Profit Requirements

By Bill d'Apice on Posted in Compliance, General

The NSW Government has amended the Education Act to strengthen the not-for-profit requirements for non-Government schools.  The rules have got tougher and non-compliance could result in a loss of funding. What organisations does this affect?  These changes affect all non-Government schools in New South Wales in receipt of funding from the NSW Government. What other… Continue Reading

ATO releases Draft Special Conditions TR2014/D5

By Bill d'Apice and Anna Lewis on Posted in Compliance, General, Governance, Tax Exemptions & DGR Status

The ATO has released the Draft Special Conditions Ruling TR 2014/D5 – Income Tax: special conditions for various entities whose ordinary and statutory income is exempt           In August the ATO released draft ruling TR 2014/D5 regarding the proposed application of special conditions inserted by the Tax Laws Amendment (2013 Measures… Continue Reading

The Future of the ACNC Remains Uncertain

By Bill d'Apice and Anna Lewis on Posted in Compliance, Fundraising, General, Governance

The Future of the ACNC Remains Uncertain On 16 June 2014 the Senate Committee delivered a divided report on the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission (Repeal) (No 1) Bill 2014 (No 1 Bill). No 1 Bill Unsurprisingly, the Liberal Senators supported the abolition of the ACNC, however, the Labor and Greens Senators offered dissenting reports… Continue Reading

Missing charities could lose tax concessions

By Bill d'Apice and Anna Lewis on Posted in Compliance, General, Governance, Tax Exemptions & DGR Status

The ACNC has recently released a register of charities that have not responded to communication from the regulator (i.e. no known address/contact details or correspondence has been returned to sender). Charities on this database risk losing their entitlements to charity tax concessions and have until 30 June 2014 to update their details and contact the… Continue Reading

Full Federal Court unanimously confirms that Hunger Project Australia is a Public Benevolent Institution

By Anna Lewis and Bill d'Apice on Posted in Compliance, General, Tax Exemptions & DGR Status

Earlier today the Full Federal Court handed down its judgment regarding the Hunger Project Australia case and rejected the Commissioner of Taxation’s appeal (Commissioner of Taxation v Hunger Project Australia [2014] FCAFC 69). The court has unanimously held that Hunger Project Australia (HPA) does not need to directly give aid in order to be endorsed… Continue Reading