Time's up for charities under deregistration threat
Posted on 08 Oct 2024
By Greg Thom, journalist, Institute of Community Directors Australia
A full list of the deregistered charities, which include the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Ltd, Change for Good Foundation, Kids Outreach International and the Australian Federation of International Students Incorporated, has been published in an excel spreadsheet on the ACNC website.
Last month the regulator published a public notice naming the charities that faced having their registration revoked for failing to lodge an AIS for two years in a row.
Their deadline for updating their details expired on Monday, October 7.
The ACNC said it issued the warning after repeated attempts to contact the charities to remind them of their obligations had failed.
The revocation of each listed charity's registration is effective from October 7 and was carried out under section 35-10 of Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Act 2012 (Cth) (the ACNC Act).
The deregistered charities are no longer eligible for Commonwealth charity tax concessions, exemptions or benefits that they were entitled to receive from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) who the ACNC said would be notified of the decision.
The ACNC said If a deregistered charity wants to reinstate its registration, it must submit its overdue AIS and re-apply.
Deregistered charities can also fight against the regulators decision to revoke their charity status by submitting an objection setting out the reasons it considers the decision to be wrong.
“It is our job to ensure that data on the register, that people rely on, is accurate and up to date. Transparency and good governance underpin the public confidence which the sector depends on.”
An ACNC spokesperson said earlier this week the regulator was in the process of determining which charities had complied with the notice.
“Once this process has been completed, we will inform the public via an ACNC news item. This may take a few days, but the effective date of revocation will be 7 October.”
The spokesperson said that while many of the charities concerned may have wound up or merged with another organisation, they still had an obligation to notify the ACNC.
“All charities registered with the ACNC must meet certain obligations to maintain registration,” the spokesperson said.
“These include reporting to the ACNC annually, notifying (the regulator of) certain changes and ensuring activities are in line with a charity’s stated purposes.
“If it is no longer operating or has wound up, it should let us know by requesting its registration be revoked, via a request form in the Charity Portal.”
The spokesperson said the Charity Register was available to the public, donors, grantmakers, policymakers and others to check the credentials of Australia’s 60,000 registered charities.
“It is our job to ensure that data on the register, that people rely on, is accurate and up to date. Transparency and good governance underpin the public confidence which the sector depends on.”
The ACNC said charities that have had their registration revoked could apply to be re-registered once they provided the regulator with all of their outstanding reports.
“The ACNC strongly encourages all charities to keep their annual reporting up to date to avoid revocation, loss of charity tax concessions and having to re-register.”