Yesterday the Australian Government released exposure draft legislation proposed to implement its budget commitment to tax discretionary trusts. Our prior update here outlined the potentially detrimental effect on distributions from discretionary trust to Australian charities and not-for-profits. In releasing the material, the Government has clarified...

04 September, 2026 /

The ACNC Commissioner has released her long-anticipated revised Interpretation Statement on Charitable Housing. The new Statement presents a substantial reworking of the prior iteration, providing new material on: Requirements for registration as a charity, including: collaboration within centrally governed housing provider groups; the interface between...

17 August, 2026 /

Those Australian not-for-profit entities that have been self-assessing their Commonwealth income tax status as exempt need to start declaring the basis of this assessment to the Australian Taxation Office (‘ATO’) in an online form due by 31 March 2025. Previously not-for-profit entities with an Australian...

12 March, 2025 /

Today the long-anticipated Productivity Commission Final Report on Philanthropy within Australia was tabled in the Commonwealth Parliament. The Report, available here, contains very significant recommendations that will have implications for every charity within Australia should they be implemented by the Commonwealth Government. The following provides a...

18 July, 2024 /

FCL Principal Mark Fowler published an article in the Canberra Times over the weekend commenting on the Commonwealth Government's Housing Australia Future Fund. In it he expresses the view that the HAFF legislation has not sufficiently addressed the uncertainties that arise in respect of the...

18 September, 2023 /

The ACNC has announced that Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness, Social and Community Housing, the Hon Michael Sukkar MP, has been confirmed to take responsibility for oversight of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. The Hon Michael Sukkar previously held ministerial oversight...

29 January, 2021 /