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The federal government has made official moves to reform the administration and oversight of organisations with deductible gift recipient (DGR) status.
After a period of consultation earlier this year, all non-government DGRs are set to be automatically registered as a charity with the ACNC from 1 July 2019 with a 12-month transitional period.
The Commissioner of Taxation will have the power to exempt DGRs from this requirement in certain circumstances, and public fund requirements will be abolished.
The DGR registers and Overseas Aid Gift Deduction Scheme will be integrated with the ACNC charity register and duplicative reporting requirements will be abolished.
Further, the ACNC will also provide a central location for applications and reporting, and along with the ATO will receive additional funding to review a greater number of DGRs for ongoing eligibility.
The ACNC will now also publish charities' declarations of political expenditure to the Australian Electoral Commission and relevant criminal activities of charities' staff or responsible persons in the Annual Information Statement.
“Australians who support not-for-profit organisations with DGR status receive a tax deduction. The cost to the Commonwealth of deductions from donations to DGR organisations was $1.31 billion in 2016-17,” said Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, Kelly O’Dwyer, in a statement yesterday.
“It is important for both taxpayers and generous donors that DGR status organisations are subject to appropriate oversight with minimal complexity,” she said.
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