On the 26th of August, the first of the proposed legislative changes were passed by the Federal Government to begin the implementation of its 2015 budget package for Small Businesses and Start ups.

More than 300 charities are at risk of losing their charity status because they have failed to provide up-to-date contact details to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). All charities on the ACNC register are required to notify the ACNC of changes to their organisation.

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) has given a ‘red mark’ to more than 5,000 charities that have failed to submit their 2014 Annual Information Statements (AIS) due for most charities in January 2015. The red mark appears as an exclamation alert on the charity’s listing on the charity register.

Volunteering Australia, the national peak body for volunteering, has released a new definition of volunteering after a 2 year review. The new definition is ‘time willingly given for the common good without financial gain’.

The deadline for lodging your Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) registered charity’s Annual Information Statement (AIS) is 30 June, unless you have applied to the ACNC to have a different reporting period. If charities fail to submit their AIS for two consecutive years, they will have their charity status revoked.

Whilst not a conventional topic for a lawyer’s article, I thought I would use this article as an opportunity to share Harwood Andrews’ recent certification as a B Corp and hopefully encourage other businesses in the Geelong and the Surf Coast region to do the same. 

The transitional period for trustees of public ancillary funds to amend their fund’s governing rules to comply with the public ancillary fund guidelines closes on 1 July 2015. Public ancillary funds and their trustees must comply with these guidelines if the funds are to remain endorsed as deductible gift recipients.

As well as the fund losing entitlement to DGR endorsement, failure to comply with the guidelines could lead to the trustee incurring administrative penalties.

The Federal Government has announced as part of its 2015 Federal Budget, a $5.5 billion package for business which is aimed to encourage entrepreneurship, growth and the creation of jobs. Small Business, being entities that that have an annual turnover of less than $2 million, make up 90 percent of incorporated business and have been the winners in the 2015 Budget. 

Farmers are relieved by the Federal Government’s decision to bring forward the start date for new farm tax breaks.  

In a recent appeal to the Family Court, it was determined that there is no binding rule for determining “special contributions” to a relationship. The Court decided that a wealthy couple should share their assets equally, despite the husband claiming that his special skills meant that he should have 70% of the assets.

In budget papers released on 12 May the Federal Government has confirmed funding to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) will continue until 2019.  However, the charity regulator will see a modest reduction in its funding from $14.8 million in the next financial year to $13.2 million in 2018-19.

In a recent speech to the Community Council for Australia forum, Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg flagged that the Abbott Government plan to make changes to the way in which private ancillary funds can distribute their assets and wind-up

The Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission have issued a final warning to 6,000 charities that face deregistration for failing to lodge their AIS for two consecutive years. If deregistered, these charities will lose their entitlement to tax concessions

1380 charities, including 170 Victorian charities, will no longer be eligible for tax concessions as the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) has revoked their registration. These charities have been deregistered due to failure to lodge their Annual Information Statement (AIS) for two consecutive years.  

The Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC) has announced its decision to revoke the registration of Queensland charity ‘Get Rid of SIDS Project Inc’, a charity reportedly linked to controversial anti-vaccine lobbyists Stephanie Messenger and Sherri Tenpenny. The charity was established in 2010 and has since sought donations to fund a study into whether toxic gases coming from mattresses cause SIDS.

Donating to charity is set to become even easier with telcos seeking 15 charities to participate in a 12 month pilot of a program enabling mobile users to make donations via SMS. Set to commence in July this year, the program is being coordinated by the Telco Together Foundation, an organisation which includes representatives from Telstra, Optus and Vodafone

If you are a director of a company and you lose capacity, the management and control of the family business may be significantly affected. Simply having an Enduring Financial Power of Attorney (POA) is not a fix all solution that replaces proper succession planning.

On Thursday 19 March the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) released their program blueprint “Reinventing the ATO”. The ATO stated that the blueprint describes the kind of experience that Australians expect to have when they deal with the ATO and that it will guide everything that the ATO does in the coming years.

Sham charities established to take advantage of generous donors seeking to help victims of Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu have come to the attention of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC)

The Federal Government has announced that it is committed to transforming the Australian Small Business Commissioner into the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (the Ombudsman).