Thousands at Risk of Losing Charity Status
12 January 2016 at 4:57 pm
As many as 19,000 Australian organisations are at risk of losing their charitable status for failing to provide their annual financial reports to the national charity regulator.
The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) has warned that charities that have not completed their 2015 Annual Information Statements faced serious consequences for not meeting their core obligation.
“31 January is the due date for the 2015 Annual Information Statement for charities that use a standard 1 July to 30 June reporting period,” ACNC Commissioner, Susan Pascoe AM, said.
“This group includes around 30,000 registered charities, however, 19,000 are yet to submit with less than three weeks to go. Charities are urged not to leave it until the last minute, as thousands trying to access the systems at the one time can slow submissions.
“More seriously, the ACNC has analysed the data and identified 3,200 charities that are at immediate risk of losing their charity status for failing to submit their Annual Information Statement for two consecutive years."
ACNC figures show that New South Wales has the highest number of charities, 6,891, that have not yet submitted their 2015 AIS.
Victoria has 4,395 charities under threat, followed by West Australia at 2,365, Queensland at 2,872 and South Australia at 1,432. Tasmania stands at 559, the Northern Territory at 447 and the ACT has 389 charities under threat.
“Submitting an Annual Information Statement to the ACNC each year is a legal requirement to maintaining registration,” Pascoe said.
“The ACNC has already revoked or removed from the Charity Register over 9,000 organisations. We do this when organisations are not meeting their obligations under the ACNC Act.
“Charities that have their status revoked by the ACNC will also lose access to Commonwealth charity tax concessions, for example, deductible gift recipient status, income tax exemption, fringe benefits tax rebates, and goods and services tax concessions.
“The information in the Annual Information Statement is used to populate the Charity Register. The ACNC is committed to providing an accurate and up-to-date Charity Register for members of the community to access when making decisions about where to donate or volunteer.
“Submitting an Annual Information Statement is not a difficult process, and the ACNC is always happy to help charities that need assistance.”
Registered charities can check their Annual Information Statement due date on their Charity Register listing at acnc.gov.au/findacharity.
