Is your organisation a charity?

Charity has a special meaning under law. To be a charity, your organisation must:

• be a not-for-profit
• have a charitable purpose
• be for the public benefit (other than where the charitable purpose is the relief of poverty).

Examples of charities include: religious groups, not-for-profit aged care homes, homeless shelters, disability service organisations, universities and colleges, animal welfare societies and artistic or cultural groups.

Who determines charitable status?

From 3 December 2012

From 3 December 2012, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) registers organisations as charities. Registration as a charity is voluntary. However, your organisation must be registered with the ACNC to access any charity tax concessions from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

If your organisation was endorsed by the ATO as a charity to access charity tax concessions before 3 December 2012, your organisation is automatically registered with the ACNC and you do not have to re-register.

Find out more about the ACNC registration process at www.acnc.gov.au.

Before 3 December 2012

Before 3 December 2012, the ATO determined whether an organisation was a charity for the purpose of determining entitlement to endorsement to access charity tax concessions.

You can access archived ATO guidance on what a charity is in the following documents:

Document title	Nat Number	Applicable period
Income tax guide for non-profit organisations 2003 (current to 30 June 2004)	NAT 7967-5.2003	20/06/2003 - 30/06/2004
Income tax guide for non-profit organisations (current to 30 June 2006)	NAT 7967-11.2004	01/07/2004 - 30/06/2006
Income tax guide for non-profit organisations	NAT 7967-03.2007	01/07/2006 - 30/06/2012

Tax concessions and endorsement requirements

Charities must be endorsed by the ATO if they want to access the following tax concessions:

• charity tax concessions:
• income tax exemption
• goods and services tax (GST) charity concessions
• fringe benefits tax (FBT) exemption
• deductible gift recipient status.

From 3 December 2012, charities must be registered by the ACNC before we can endorse them to access the above concessions.

If a charity is endorsed as income tax exempt, it will be entitled to a refund of franking credits on dividends it receives.

Charities can self-assess their entitlement to GST concessions for non-profit organisations.

For more information on the tax concessions available to charities refer to Tax concessions - an overview in our publication Tax basics for non-profit organisations.