Call for ASIC registered charities to be exempt from paying annual levy

The Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC) has called for Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) registered charities to be exempt from paying an annual levy in submission to treasury consultation.

The submission was lodged to the ‘ASIC Industry Funding Levies Regulation Enhancement’ Treasury Consultation on May 10 to “exclude registered charities from paying the annual levy set out in the ASIC Supervisory Cost Recovery Levy Act 2017.”

The ACNC noted that that the ‘ASIC Supervisory Cost Recovery Levy Amendment Regulations 2018’ primarily establishes new industry subsectors and very few of the amendments will impact on the charities registered with the ACNC.

“We note that a modest increase in review fees is proposed for propriety companies, but we do not consider that this will materially impact the few proprietary company charities,” read the submission.

The ACNC has re-affirmed its view that the levy is “disproportionate to ASICs actual regulatory oversight of charitable companies” given that the ACNC is the principle regulator of companies that are registered as charities.

“The ACNC has previously advised both Treasury and ASIC that the ACNC considers imposing an annual levy on charitable companies to be inappropriate,” the submission read. “We maintain this position and reaffirm the ACNC’s views that the levy is disproportionate to ASIC’s actual regulatory oversight of charitable companies.”

The submission notes that the ACNC understands the Treasury and the ASIC are considering the view that the Treasury would use this opportunity to regulate for the exemption of charities resisted with the ACNC.