Charities Commission

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Iwi/Māori organisations and the Charities Act

Download the information sheet (PDF, 231KB) to print this document.

Registration under the Charities Act has some significant implications for Māori. This information
sheet outlines the reasons why you need to be aware of this new legislation and the changes it brings.

Introduction

If you are involved in an organisation that has an entirely charitable purpose, your organisation could benefit from registration under the Charities Act 2005.

To be eligible for income tax and gift duty exemptions, charitable organisations must register under the Charities Act. Existing tax exemptions on the grounds of charitable purpose will end for those that have not registered before 1 July 2008.

The Charities Act has some provisions that have particular relevance for Māori. Under the Charities Act:

  • organisations that provide benefits to a group with common ancestry, such as hapu or iwi, may be considered charitable
  • maintaining and administering land and buildings of a marae on reservation land is deemed a charitable purpose.

What is the Charities Act?

The Charities Act established the Charities Commission as an autonomous Crown Entity to ensure charitable organisations continue to receive public trust and support.

The Charities Commission’s main functions are to provide:

  • a registration and monitoring system for charitable organisations
  • support and education to the charitable sector on good governance and management.

Registration with the Charities Commission is voluntary and began in February 2007, when we opened the Charities Register.

Why is it relevant to Māori?

Many Māori are active social service providers. If you are involved in an organisation that has an entirely charitable purpose, your organisation could benefit from registration under the Charities Act.

To be eligible for income tax and gift duty exemptions, charitable organisations must register under the Charities Act. Your organisation must be registered by 1 July 2008 to continue existing tax exemptions based on charitable purpose.

How will you know if your organisation currently has tax exemption on charitable grounds?

If your organisation currently has exemptions from income tax and gift duty, you are likely to have a letter of approval from Inland Revenue, which sets out those exemptions. To continue to be eligible for those tax advantages after 1 July 2008, you must register under the Charities Act.

Inland Revenue has published an Operational Statement - Interaction of tax and charities rules, covering tax exemption and donee status (OS 06/02), which explains the things charitable organisations must consider to qualify for tax exemptions on an ongoing basis. You can get a copy from www.ird.govt.nz or by calling Inland Revenue on 0800 377 774.

What are the other benefits of registration under the Act?

The details of all organisations registered under the Charities Act will be publicly available on the Charities Register. In time, the Charities Register will become a useful source of information for Crown funding agencies and others, as it will clearly show registered charities’ services and who benefits from them, as well as financial and other information.

Charitable purpose

General

To qualify for registration under the Charities Act your organisation must have a charitable purpose, name and officers that comply with the Charities Act. See our information sheets Charitable purpose, The name of your organisation and Officer certification for more details.

Charitable purpose has a special meaning in the law that is more limited than the meaning people generally give to those words. In addition to meeting at least one of these four heads of charity:

  • advancement of education
  • advancement of religion
  • relief of poverty
  • other benefit to the community

the purpose of your organisation must also be directed towards the public benefit. This means that it must be for a benefit that is clearly identified and defined, and must be available to a wide section of the public.

Blood relationship

Section 5 (2)(a) of the Charities Act says that the purpose of an organisation may still be charitable and may satisfy the public benefit requirement, even if the beneficiaries or members are related by blood.

Marae on a Māori reservation

Section 5 (2)(b) of the Charities Act says that a marae has a charitable purpose if the marae is on land that is a Māori reservation and the funds of the marae are used only for:

  • administration and maintenance of the land and the structure of the marae or
  • a charitable purpose or
  • a combination of points (1) and (2).

If you are a marae on land that is a Māori reservation, there will be a Gazette notice relating to the reservation of the land. It would help us if you could send a copy of the Gazette notice relating to the reservation of the land or the legal description of the land with your application for registration.

Trusts under Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993

We may be able to register trusts established under Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993 (Māori Land Act 1993) under the Charities Act, if they can clearly show they have a charitable purpose.

An order of the Māori Land Court under Te Ture Whenua MāoriAct won’t be automatically accepted as proof of charitable purpose under the Charities Act. We will review the terms of the order and the trust deed in relation to the definition of "charitable purpose" in the Charities Act.

We assess every organisation’s application on a case-by-case basis to decide whether it has a charitable purpose.

Māori Trust Boards Act 1955

Māori Trust Boards that have had declarations of trust approved as charitable by the Commissioner of Inland Revenue under section 24B of the Māori Trust Boards Act already have a charitable purpose. It would help us if you could supply a copy of the letter from Inland Revenue regarding the approval of the declaration of trust.

Other Māori organisations

The Commission recognises that Māori are adopting new structures to manage their fisheries resources and Treaty settlements. The range of purposes of these organisations may be wider than just being purely charitable. However, within these organisations there may still be functioning charities (often as trusts) that could be separately registered under the Charities Act.

Further information

Please also read our information sheets:

For more information about the Charities Commission or registration under the Charities Act, please browse this website.

You can also call the Charities Commission on our free information line 0508 242 748.

To get updates by email, please send your name, organisation and contact details to info@charities.govt.nz.