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Charities and Charities and
Not for [2]Australian Charities and Not for profits Commission Not for
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Commission Commission
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Thank you for your email.
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o If your email is a general enquiry, we will respond as soon as possible or
within 7 business days.
o If you have submitted a concern about a charity, we will only be in contact
with you if we need more information about your concern. (For more information,
see [7]Raise a concern about a charity.)
o If you have submitted a form on behalf of a charity, we will only contact you
if we need more information to process it.

For more information, see [8]the ACNC’s Service Standards.

Thank you.

The ACNC will be closed from 5pm (AEDST) 21 December 2018 and will open 9am
Wednesday 2 January 2019.

We wish everyone a safe and festive holiday season

Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.
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Dear Richard

 

We confirm receipt of your email to the Australian Charities and
Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) on 14 December 2018, requesting
documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act).

 

In order to better address your request, it would be helpful to discuss
your request over the phone. I would appreciate it if you could give me a
call on 03 8632 5287 during business hours this week. Alternatively, I can
contact you if you provide me a preferred phone number.

 

Your request

We confirm that your request was in the following terms:

 

“I request the following Government Information:

 

a) Documents relating to the number of registered Religions in Australia
as at 1 December 2018; and

 

b) Documents relating to the number of registered Religious Orders (i.e.
an order belonging to a "parent" Religion as identified above in a) but
that is registered separately with ACNC) in Australia as at 1 December
2018; and

 

c) Documents relating to the number of registered Religiously Affiliated
Organisations in Australia as at 1 December 2018; and

 

d) Documents relating to the tax exemption status of each of the
separately registered entities identified in points a) through c) above.

 

To assist the ACNC with processing my request for Government Information,
I am primarily interested in aggregate statistics for each of my queries,
not a list of separate entities. I note that s17 of the FOI Act is
particularly relevant to the processing of my request.

 

If this can be answered as informal request, please do so.

 

Otherwise, please proceed with this as a formal request under the Freedom
of Information principles & framework, i.e. the Freedom of Information Act
1982 & other associated guidelines and regulations".

 

ACNC generally does not record details of specific religions

We could likely provide a response to your request faster if treated
informally, however I note that the ACNC is unlikely to have documents
relating to some parts of your request.

 

Charities registered with the ACNC are generally registered with
particular charitable subtypes - one of which is advancing religion. As
part of its regulatory function, the ACNC has details of the number of
charities registered with the advancing religion subtype.  However, the
ACNC generally does not keep records on the number of registered charities
that advance each religion, or the number of different religions to which
charities relate.

 

Timeline and potential charges

As your request was received on 14 December 2018, the 30-day statutory
period for processing your request under the FOI Act commenced from the
day after that date, meaning that you should expect a decision by 13
January 2019. This period may be extended if we need to consult third
parties or for other reasons. We will contact you if this happens.

 

Please note that charges may apply depending on the size and complexity of
your request. We will obtain your consent to any charges before they are
incurred.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Kind regards,

Tom Abourizk
Officer | Legal & Policy | Australian Charities and Not-for-profits
Commission    
T 03 8632 5287 | F 1300 232 569 |  E [1][email address] 
|  W [2]www.acnc.gov.au

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Dear Richard

 

Please see attached:

 

o My decision made on your FOI request of 14 December 2018;
o the Schedule of Documents for your FOI request; and
o the documents released pursuant to your FOI request.

 

The decision document contains the reasons for the decision, and
information about your review rights.

 

Separate to your request, you may also find some of the information below
useful.

 

No registered religions or religious order information

My decision states that the ACNC found no documents exist in relation to
parts a), b) and d) of your request.

 

As noted in my email sent on 17 December 2018, the ACNC registers and
regulates entities (such as associations, companies, trusts, etc) which
meet the description of charity. Entities registered with the ACNC are
generally registered with particular charitable subtypes - one of which is
advancing religion.

 

Where the ACNC registers a charity with the ‘advancing religion’ subtype,
an assessment has been made that the charity advances a religion, in a
legal sense. The ACNC’s regulatory functions relate to charities,
regardless of their particular charitable purpose. The ACNC does not
perform any regulatory function or hold any searchable data relating to
individual religions as religions, or relating to particular religious
orders. The ACNC also does not record data about how many different
religions (or denominations) are advanced by individual charities or about
how many registered charities are religious orders.

 

ACNC does not administer tax concessions

In relation to part d) of your request, while ACNC registration may be a
requirement for charities to be entitled to certain tax concessions and
exemptions, the ACNC does not determine entitlement to these concessions.
Charity tax concessions are generally administered by the Australian
Taxation Office (ATO). The ACNC accordingly does not hold documents
recording the tax concessions claimed by any registered charity.

 

However, you may find some of the information on the tax concessions
generally available to registered charities on the ACNC website at these
links useful:

o [1]Charity tax concessions
o [2]Other Commonwealth benefits and exemptions
o [3]The ACNC and the ATO: Charity tax concessions and endorsement.

 

The [4]ATO non-profit website also has further information on tax
concessions.

 

If you would like to discuss the decision or any of the above, please
contact me.

 

Kind regards

Tom Abourizk
Officer | Legal & Policy | Australian Charities and Not-for-profits
Commission    
T 03 8632 5287 | F 1300 232 569 |  W [5]www.acnc.gov.au

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References

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4. https://www.ato.gov.au/Non-profit/
5. http://www.acnc.gov.au/