The second Treasury Not-for-profit newsletter was issued Monday 21 November and currently has 2,000 subscribers.
The senate passed the reforms to public ancillary funds yesterday.
The draft guidelines will likely change slightly to reflect comments received during consultation. These guidelines need to be in place by end of calendar year for a 1 January 2012 start date.
COAG not-for-profit working group
- Made up of all treasuries around Australia.
- Had productive conversations at the meeting predominantly around reducing red tape.
- Most state treasuries have set up a process to disseminate information to all relevant departments.
- Planned work schedule will be agreed early next year.
Review into company guarantee
Considering the amount of consultations for the sector occurring at present, the review has been postponed til March 2012.
Fundraising review
The draft consultation paper is being finalised - it will be released shortly.
Better targeting of not-for-profit tax concessions
- Finalised first round of consultation and developed a number of models for further consultation.
- Exposure draft to be released for consultation early 2012.
In Australia
A revised exposure draft to incorporate concerns is being finalised. Major changes have been made to address concerns raised during consultation.
Next stages - second round of consultation will occur in two stages.
- Consult with a select group including NFPSRC - (please contact us if you would like to be included).
- A revised draft to issue for a second round of public consultation late 2012.
Outcomes of the tax forum
Government will be establishing a Special Tax Forum NFP Working Group to further NFP tax reform. They will feed into the second round of tax reforms.
The terms of reference are to issue shortly.
Review into government arrangements for not-for-profit sector
Discussion paper is being finalised.
The governance review is scheduled to be released by the end of November-early December and will feed into ACNC legislation.
ACNC legislation
The appointment processes - ACNC needs a commissioner and remaining advisory board members. Treasury will run this recruitment process in line with government guidelines.
ACNC legislation needs to be passed before appointments can be made.
Process and timing
- The newsletter outlines planned implementation dates.
- Legislation needs to receive royal assent by mid May 2012.
- Things need to be finalised by the end of February so consultation over the Christmas period will be necessary.
- There are three Treasury forums being run in mid December in various places. The forums will cover governance and legislation issues.
- The ACNC Taskforce discussion paper deals with mainly administration issues - statements/forms etc which are complimentary but different issues to the proposed legislation. The paper is scheduled to be linked with the release of the ACNC legislation.
- There will be gaps in the ACNC legislation with some amendments required to be made. Factsheets will accompany the legislation.
- Explanatory material will be provided.
Definition of charity
Discussion paper out now - consultation closes 9 December.
Next step is draft is legislation - likely to be out mid 2012. We will be running public consultation for the draft legislation. It may go to senate committee before being introduced to parliament.
CCC member feedback about the paper included:
- in paragraph 3 the definition of sufficient needs to be clearer
- under 'Political Advocacy' the word 'cause' should be removed in the sentence 'advocating a political party or cause (paragraph a)'
- AidWatch seemed to say that peak bodies are charitable as they support charities. Is this the case? Response - Treasury are still considering the grey areas of this proposal.
Treasury added that examples of charity advocacy are really helpful for guidance material - please provide them to us.
Treasury will also consider including a question and answer section about codification in its next newsletter.
Treasury are working with the states to close any gaps and attempting to align the charities law. There will be continued attempts to align the law through state consultation.
Sections within Agenda items
Last Modified: Wednesday, 8 February 2012