Helen Kroger (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Treasurer, upon notice, on 8 March 2012:

With reference to Schedule 8 of the Tax Laws Amendment (2011 Measures No. 7) Act 2012, which amends the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, the Taxation Administration Act 1953 and the A New Tax System (Australian Business Number) Act 1999 to improve the integrity of public ancillary funds, and given that item 8.7 of Chapter 8 of the explanatory memorandum describes the nature of a public ancillary fund as follows: 'A fund is a public ancillary fund where: it is the intention of the promoters or founders that the public will be invited to contribute to the fund; the public, or a significant part of it, does in fact contribute to the fund; and the public participates in the administration of the fund (see Bray v FC of T 78 ATC 4179 (1978) 8 ATR 569). These requirements are intended to ensure that moneys and property donated to the fund, and which attract a taxation concession, are used for the purpose for which the fund has been granted DGR [Deductible Gift Recipient] status':

(1)   Should a perpetual public ancillary fund that has a substantial corpus comprised almost entirely of testamentary gifts surrender its DGR endorsement and be permitted to continue to pursue its public charitable purposes.

(2)   If a public ancillary fund has received some small donations from the public in the years of its existence and has made distributions far in excess of the funds so donated, on surrendering DGR endorsement, will the fund have no additional obligations to satisfy the Government that moneys received by way of tax deductible gifts from the public have been distributed appropriately.