The Federal Government has been working on the reform of the Charities and Not-For-Profit sector arduously before the Christmas break.
In particular, the Government has released:
- a consultation paper reviewing Not-For-Profit governance arrangements (submissions due 20 January 2012);
- an exposure draft of legislation to create the ACNC (submissions due 20 January 2012);
- a draft tax ruling regarding the qualifying conditions for school building funds (submissions due 20 January 2012);
- a discussion paper regarding the implementation design of the ACNC (submissions due 27 February 2012); and
- has passed legislation changing the regulation of public ancillary funds.
We are expecting more consultation papers to be released during the summer break, with equally stringent timeframes for submissions to be lodged with the Government.
We also will be working arduously over the Christmas break reviewing these papers and considering submissions to be made to protect the interests of Charities and Not-For-Profit organisations. We recommend that you consider lodging a submission in relation to these issues to protect your organisation’s interests.
While it would appear to make the term Christmas break a misnomer, we are happy to field any questions that you may have over this period if it helps you to prepare your submissions. As our team is not in the office during this period until 11 January 2011, we suggest that you contact our offices and ask to be referred to us by mobile phone.
Have a wonderful festive season and look out for our seminar dealing with the major reforms which we expect to hold early in February 2012.