ATO issues ‘good governance’ checklist for NFPs

The Tax Office has reminded not-for-profit organisations to check that tax and super obligations are being met effectively to uphold good governance.

Background

It’s important that your NFP organisation has good governance and you are meeting your tax and super obligations. You need to check that you continue to be entitled to:

  • deductible gift recipient (DGR) endorsement
  • income tax exemption
  • other tax concessions.

To do this, you should complete a self-review of your NFP every 12 months and when your organisation makes changes to its governing rules or structure and activities.

The checklist and worksheets below will help you complete your self-review. You may need to complete more than one worksheet depending on the entitlements you are claiming.

You must also:

If you don’t notify the ATO of changes to your eligibility or registration details, penalties or a referral to prosecution may apply.

Not-for-profit good governance checklist

All NFPs should complete the self-governance checklist. This will help you:

Eligibility to income tax exemption

From 1 July 2023, non-charitable NFPs with an active ABN need to lodge an annual self-review return to confirm their eligibility to self-assess as income tax exempt.

NFPs that self-assess as income tax exempt, can use the questions in the ATO’s self-review guide to conduct an early review. This can be done before the NFP-self-review return is available on 1 July.

Charitable NFPs endorsed as a tax concession charity (TCC), must self-review TCC endorsement annually, and whenever there is a change in the charity’s structure, purposes or operations.

Charities are not required to lodge the NFP self-review return with the Tax office.

The following worksheet will help charities review their TCC endorsement:

Deductible gift recipient (DGR) endorsement worksheets

The following worksheets will help you to work out whether your NFP organisation is still entitled to endorsement as a DGR.

Select the worksheet that applies to your organisation:

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