Non-Profit News Service No. 0379 - New version of the Income tax guide for non-profit organisations

Recently we released a new version of our Income tax guide for non-profit organisations (NAT 7967). This version replaces Income tax guide for non-profit organisations (NAT 7967-03.2007).

The guide is for office bearers and advisers of non-profit organisations to use when self-assessing if they are exempt from income tax.

Self-assessing income tax status

The guide includes detailed information about the types of entities that can work out for themselves what their income tax status is. This includes the steps to follow to work out whether an organisation is exempt from income tax. The entitlements and responsibilities of being income tax exempt are also discussed.

The new version of the guide does not discuss the requirements for organisations that must be endorsed to access income tax exemption. These organisations are charities and income tax exempt funds.

For information about the endorsement process for charities and income tax exempt funds, refer to: Endorsement to access charity tax concessions Endorsement process for income tax exempt funds.

The new Income tax guide for non-profit organisations is only available online and cannot be ordered from our publications ordering service. You can print a paper copy of the guide using the printer friendly format. This is available by clicking on the printer icon located on the right-hand side of the screen.

Is your organisation exempt from income tax?

We have also released a new worksheet to help organisations self-review their income tax status. Organisations are either income tax exempt or taxable. The worksheet allows you to type directly into the form and save the completed form to your computer. We recommend that self-assessing non-profit organisations use this worksheet on an annual basis and whenever there is a major change to their structure or operations.

Why are we updating our products?

We are making these changes to our information products in preparation for the start of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). As advised in previous news service articles, from 1 October 2012 the government has proposed that:

• the ACNC will be responsible for determining charity status for all Australian Government purposes and maintaining a charity register
• the ATO will continue to be responsible for administering tax concessions for charities.

More information

For more information about key reforms for the non-profit sector, refer to Not-for-profit reforms. For more information about the Non-Profit News Service, including how to subscribe and links to previous articles, refer to About the Non-Profit News Service. We encourage your feedback and suggestions for future topics to be covered by the news service. You can do this by: emailing us at npc-publications@ato.gov.au phoning us on 1300 130 248.