Published 24 April 2019
Update: The due date of the public consultation has been extended to 31 May, 2019.
The modernisation of the Charities Act 2005 is currently underway to ensure it's fit for purpose.
The Department of Internal Affairs is hosting community meetings throughout the country from 6 March - 18 April.
Their online meeting presentation is available online at www.dia.govt.nz/charitiesact.
Future prospects for charity law, accounting, and regulation: A conference hosted by the Charity Law Association of Australia and New Zealand and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, and supported by Charities Services.
Building on the success of 2018, this multi-disciplinary conference covered legal, accounting and related practical issues associated with the charitable sector, and aimed to:
Inform and educate on important topics for charities
Strengthen links, contacts and collabo…
Published 1 May 2019Since 2016 registered charities have had to include a “Statement of Receipts and Payments” (Tier 4) or a “Statement of Cash Flows” (all other tiers) in their performance report or financial statements each year. While the name of the statement is different for each tier, they serve the same purpose.
The Statement of Receipts and Payments and the Statement of Cash Flows are intended to show all the money received by and paid out by a charity during the financial year. When th…
Being a registered charity brings with it a number of benefits, and some obligations.
BenefitsBeing a registered charity means:
You can call yourself a registered charitable entity. It is an offence to even imply that you are a registered charitable entity if you are not registered under the Charities Act 2005.
You are eligible for exemptions from income tax on all or some of your income, as well as being entitled to other tax benefits. You may also be eligible for donee organisation status*…
Inland Revenue administers charitable tax exemptions from things such as income tax and gift duty for people who give gifts to charitable entities. Inland Revenue generally accepts Charities Services’ decisions regarding charitable registrations, so in most cases tax exemptions are approved.
Guidance can be found on the Non-Profits section on the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) website or in the IR255 Guide – Charities and Donee organisations.
When a charity is registered as a charitable entit…
These pages outline what you will need to prepare before you register, such as your charitable purpose, your rules document and your officer information.
Once you have prepared everything you need to apply, go to our Ready to apply page to find out about the application process.
Here are some examples of wording used by charitable organisations to show how they fit within the "relief of poverty" charitable purpose.
You should also read Charities Services information about Charitable purpose and your rules.
To be charitable under this category, your organisation's purpose must:
be directed at people who are poor, in need, aged, or suffering genuine hardship
provide relief.
The law uses a broad interpretation of the meaning of "poverty".
Peopl…
This page explains how a charity advances religion in a charitable way, and provides some examples of wording used by charitable organisations to show how they fit within the "advancement of religion" charitable purpose.
You should also read Charities Services information about Charitable purpose and your rules.
To be charitable under this category, your organisation's purpose must:
advance a set of beliefs that constitute a religion
aim to pass on the religious beliefs to othe…
One of the most important things charities do is provide a public benefit, but not everything that benefits the public is “charitable.”
To qualify as a charity, an organisation has to provide a benefit to the public which is very similar to what has been accepted as charitable by the courts. Charities Services assesses applications on a case-by-case basis in light of those previous court rulings about charitable public benefit.
Many cases have discussed these matters and it can be confusing to…