Treasury has released a revised exposure draft for restating and standardising the special conditions for tax concession entities (including the ‘in Australia’ conditions) and an explanatory Fact Sheet.

Following considerations of the submissions received, changes have been made to the exposure draft and explanatory materials.

The exposure draft ensures that:

• income tax exempt entities generally must be operated principally in Australia and for the broad benefit of the Australian community; and
• deductible gift recipients generally must be operated solely in Australia and for the broad benefit of the Australian community.

Consultation closes Friday 11 May 2012.

QUT has published The Australian Nonprofit Sector Legal and Accounting Almanac 2011, edited by Myles McGregor-Lowndes. It is available as a free PDF download.

The 224 page Almanac is a useful summary of legal cases, legislation and developments in law and accounting relevant to nonprofit organisations and charity law during 2011.

The Government has announced it will extend the start date of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission to 1 October 2012.

The extension in the commencement of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission will not affect the announced introduction of a general reporting framework and the establishment of a public information portal by 1 July 2013, as well as the introduction of a statutory definition of ‘charity’ by 1 July 2013.

Background

Treasury has released a consultation paper on reform of charitable fundraising regulation.

The purpose of this discussion paper is to seek comments on a proposed framework for a new nationally consistent approach to regulation of charitable fundraising. At present, every State and Territory of Australia, with the exception of the Northern Territory, separately regulates fundraising by charities. Appendix A sets out the current State and Territory fundraising legislation.

The discussion paper calls for comments on:

• Defining fundraising activities that are to be regulated
• Activities that might be exempt from fundraising regulation
• Implementing a national approach to fundraising regulation
• Registering for fundraising activities
• Application of consumer protection laws to charitable fundraising
• Charitable fundraising and unsolicited selling provisions of the Australian Consumer Law
• Information disclosure at the time of giving
• Information disclosure after the time of giving
• Internet and electronic fundraising
• Fundraising by third parties on behalf of charities./li>

The latest Treasury Not-For-Profit Newsletter contains a diagrammatic overview of the current changes to the sector (see page 5).

As is the way with these things, the diagram does not simplify the process but does put the process on 1 page and illustrates the major reforms underway.

NFP Reform Process Dec11

The Government has released exposure draft legislation and explanatory materials for the establishment of the ACNC.

Submissions on the exposure draft materials close on 20 January 2012. In order for the ACNC to commence by 1 July 2012, legislation for the ACNC needs to be ready to be introduced into Parliament in the first quarter of 2012.

A discussion paper has also been released by the Implementation Taskforce for the ACNC, which seeks feedback on the design and implementation of the new reporting framework for charities that will be administered by the ACNC. The Discussion Paper contains mock-ups of what an ACNC registration form might look like and the annual information statements. Consultation on the discussion paper closes on 27 February 2012.