ACNC deregisters thousands of charities in register clean-up
14 February 2015
Another 392 charities have lost their charity status as the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) continues to ‘clean-up’ the national Charity Register.
Since the establishment of the regulator in December 2012, 4,000 charities have had their charity status revoked.
The group of revoked charities had failed to make contact with the ACNC or respond to multiple letters and calls from the regulator leading the ACNC to believe that they were no longer in operation.
For some of those charities, the loss of their charity status has also resulted in the loss of their Commonwealth charity tax concessions and deductible gift recipient status.
The list includes a number of Parents and Citizens' Associations, churches, welfare charities and relief funds.
The ACNC has foreshadowed further revocations for charities that have not met their legislative obligations with the ACNC, with an additional 3,200 charities expected to be removed from the Charity Register in the coming months. Those who have not filed both their 2013 and 2014 Annual Information Statements (AIS) are at risk of removal.
Charities are required to lodge an AIS each year, and charities that do not lodge for two consecutive years face losing their charity status.
Here are some tips on how to avoid a similar fate!
- Lodge your AIS! The ACNC has extended the deadline for lodgement of the 2014 AIS to 31 January 2015. If you haven’t lodged an AIS for either 2013 or 2014 you are at risk of deregistration.
- Remember that if you’re classified as a medium or large charity, in addition to lodging the AIS, you also have to lodge an annual financial report. You’re a medium charity if your annual revenue is $250,000 or more but less than $1M. You’re a large charity if you have an annual revenue of $1M or more.
- If you’re an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporation, you do not need to file an AIS.
- Half the work: the 2014 AIS will prepopulate some information from the 2013 AIS meaning less work for you to complete.
