Under the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission Act 2012, certain information must be published by the Commissioner on the ACNC Register for the public to view. This information includes the entity’s name, ABN, sub-type, governing rules, details of responsible entities, information statements, financial reports or any other information the Commissioner is authorised to collect. This is very broad and in some circumstances charities may wish to apply for the information to be withheld from the ACNC Register. The Commissioner may withhold information if it is commercially sensitive or has the potential to cause detriment to the registered charity or an individual. We recommend all charities registered with the ACNC consider whether certain information should be withheld from the ACNC Register.
The scope for withholding information from the ACNC Register was widened by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Regulation 2013. Amongst other things, the Regulation offered additional privacy protections for Private Ancillary Funds (PAFs) registered as charities with the ACNC. Typically, these protections were introduced in order to protect the identity of individual philanthropists or donors and to prevent an unreasonable burden being placed on PAFs whereby they might be inundated with donation requests from other entities.
The ACNC has temporarily withheld all information relating to private ancillary funds and former Income Tax Exempt Funds (ITEFs) from the Register until 30 June 2014. For information to be withheld after this date the PAF (or ITEF) must apply to the Commissioner in the approved form. An application to withhold information must be made through Form AE which is available through the Private and Public Ancillary Fund Factsheet on the ACNC website. Information will be withheld from the Register while an application is being considered.
If you would like more information or assistance with making an application to withhold information please contact Bill d’Apice or Anna Lewis of this office.