ACNC Updates
On 4 December 2015, Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission launched its first Charities Report in collaboration with University of New South Wales Centre for Social Impact. The release occurred on the third anniversary of the establishment of ACNC.
Statistics reveal that the charity sector in 2014 had income of $103 billion, with nearly $7 billion coming from donations and bequests. They also revealed that 5% of the charities received 80% of total income and the sector spent $95m. The sector employs 1m people, and attracts another 1m volunteers.. The largest spend is in education and research followed by health, development and housing.
See link here for the full report.
The ACNC is reviewing the standard questions in the Annual Information Statement template. The questions will include some changes but no increase in the number of questions. In particular, the ACNC has noticed that many entities which are reporting as basic religious charities do not qualify for that status and have been inaccurately responding on the annual information statement. Remember the test for a basic religious charity
See link.
Questions which are likely to fall off the 2015 Annual Information Statement are:
- Whether the charity has conducted a specific number of activities and assisted a particular number of individuals in the preceding 12 month period.
- Whether the charity has been required to report to another Government or statutory authority.
Questions which are likely to come on to the new Annual Information Statement for 2015 are:
- What turnover the charity has had.
- How many incidents of interaction with the Register have been reported.
Questions which are likely to be amended, include:
- Instead of listing main, and then additional, activities, organisations will now need to list their top 5 activities, ranked from 1 to 5.
- Organisations will need to list 5 groups of beneficiaries who they have assisted, again ranked from 1 to 5.
- Medium and large charities will need to answer additional questions on whether their financial accounts were audited or reviewed and whether the auditors opinion is qualified adverse or disclaimed.
- Small charities will need to indicate how much of their income is ‘revenue’ and how much is ‘gains’.
- For medium charities, elimination of items on the income list which relate to nett gains or losses, nett movements in revaluation reserves, and the nett gains and losses from investments.
ACNC is presently engaging with stakeholders for feedback.
Additionally, ACNC has sought feedback from the sector over the proposal by the Accounting Standards Board to measure the effectiveness of the delivery of certain services in accordance with a proposed new accounting standard. This proposed measure has created discomfort in the church sector where delivery of worship practices and spiritual support is not by its nature capable of empirical measurement
