Recording of the webinar held on 23 August 2018
Did you know that the Charities Register has details of over 27,000 charities?
In this webinar, we explain:
What the Charities Register is, and what it isn’t
How to search the Register using different terms
How to learn about a charity from the Register
On completion of the webinar, you will know how to search for a charity, and learn about the charity using the Register.
This is pitched at beginners, and requires no prior knowledge of the Regi…
Published 3 September 2018
The independent Charities Registration Board notes the recent decision of the High Court on the removal of Family First as a charity under the Charities Act 2005.
The court confirmed the Board’s decision that Family First’s purposes are not exclusively charitable.
This is the first substantive decision of the High Court applying the Greenpeace Supreme Court judgment that held that advocacy purposes were capable of being charitable.
The Board acknowledges the High C…
Published 8 October 2018
Update: The due date of the public consultation has been extended to 31 May, 2019.
The Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, Hon Peeni Henare, has announced that public consultation for the Charities Act review will take place in March and April next year.
Initially planned for the end of this year, public consultation will now take place in 2019 to ensure there is enough time for good, quality engagement and ensure a successful consultation process.
The p…
What to do if you have a negative value when calculating your Statement of Financial Position.
While preparing your performance report, you may find that when adding together the items in the categories on your Statement of Financial Position, the resulting value is negative. Usually what this means is that the asset or liability should actually be reported in the other grouping. For example if at the end of the year you calculate a negative value for GST payable, this would actually be a GST r…
Control for financial reporting purposes is defined as when an entity controls another entity when the entity is exposed, or has rights, to variable benefits from its involvement with the other entity and has the ability to affect the nature or amount of those benefits through its power over the other entity. Tier 4 charities in this situation may need to include information about these organisations by providing a consolidated performance report.
Where there is a control relationship the opera…
Published 12 December 2018
Earlier this year we announced that we had begun work on a project to look into what we can do to make things easier for charities to improve their governance. We thought it was timely to provide an update with where we are at.
Why do this?One of our key roles as the regulator is to educate charities about matters of good governance and management. We know governance is an issue for many charities because throughout our work here we see many examples where poor gover…
Published 1 February 2019
Update: The due date of the public consultation has been extended to 31 May, 2019.
The Charities Act 2005 is being modernised and your feedback is important. The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) is running a series of 21 community meetings in March and April 2019 to explain the modernisation and seek your feedback.
The DIA policy team is running the meetings, which is separate from the Charities Services team that regulates charities. They look forward to hearing…
Published 27 February 2019.
Inland Revenue is working on some proposed changes to make our tax system more straightforward for you. The changes are currently going through Parliament and are designed to simplify the end of year tax process for everyone.
One of these changes will simplify the way your charity’s donors can claim donation tax credits if your charity has approved donee status. Making it easier to claim donation tax credits will help reinforce and encourage giving to your charity.…
Published 21 March 2019
New Zealanders are incredibly generous in times of need, and we have a very healthy charitable sector that does great things in our communities. Here are some tips to ensure your donation will have an impact.
Get to know the charity betterThere are some things you can do to be confident that your money will go to help those in need. You can find out who a charity is and what they do. You can often find this information on the charity’s website and on the Charities Regis…
Posted on 29 March 2019
The majority of organisations that submit an application for registration are registered without Charities Services needing to contact the group.
However, some organisations make small errors in their application that delay registration. But these errors can be easily fixed!
A complete application
First: some might not submit a “complete application.” A complete application means:
Providing the most recent version of your rules document.
Certifying all officers. Look…