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The ACNC's total list of lost charities, which it may ultimately deregister, numbers in the thousands. It may all be legitimate, but you'd think at the very least we would know how much that is. That's billions of dollars being taken out of the system. In 2010, the Productivity Commission had a stab at it, estimating not-for-profit organisations could be enjoying annual tax concessions of anywhere between $4-$8 billion. One of the problems with having tens of thousands of entities with no national regulator, no reporting obligations and generous tax concessions was no one knew just how big those concessions were. "Well, I think it's of concern that those bodies were allowed to continue as income tax exempt, with no obligation to provide any details, even change of address details, that would enable them to be contacted," she says. In return for charities enjoying tax concessions, Professor O'Connell believes there's a basic expectation that they will at least let the government know their current address. "So they might have applied for endorsement back in 2000 and then simply have had no other contact or reporting obligations or the need to get in touch with any government body again."Ĭharities didn't have to file tax returns or even stay in contact with the ATO. "They didn't have to do anything after that," she says.

After that - absolutely nothing at all, according to Professor Ann O'Connell, a taxation expert from Melbourne University. In the first instance, you had to be registered by the Tax Office. And prior to 2012, you didn't have to do much to prove you were a charity. How many charities and not-for-profit organisations are there in Australia? Hundreds? A couple of thousand? Have a guess. On top of that, we keep giving, in the form of billions of dollars in tax concessions - and we're just as lavish with the title of "charity" itself. That's more true than we know.Īs taxpayers, we give generously to charities, so much so that the charities and not-for-profit sector is now worth $55 billion. When it comes to giving to charity, Australians like to think of themselves as generous.

Given the billions in tax concessions these groups get, why nobble the regulator? Sarah Dingle writes. The Abbott Government plans to kill off Australia's first charities watchdog just as it starts to make some progress.