Private Ancillary Fund Deadline Extended

The charity regulator, the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission is giving Private Ancillary Funds five more months to ask that their information not be made public on the ACNC Register.

The ACNC says that at the end of October 2013, 27 of the approximately 630 PAFs registered with the ACNC have made application for withholding of information.

“The 5 November deadline has now been extended up to 31 March 2014 to ensure charities are fully aware of the process, to give charities more time to apply, and to make sure the ACNC has adequate time to process all applications,” ACNC Commissioner Susan Pascoe AM said.

“The extension to 31 March 2014 means that Private Ancillary Fund details will be withheld from the ACNC Register until this date.”

“Given that this is the first time PAFs have had to think about whether they want their information made public on the ACNC Register or not, I felt it appropriate to grant this extension,” Pascoe added.

“We believe it’s important to work flexibly and productively with the sector,” she said.

“Of course, this doesn’t mean that any Private Ancillary Funds who are keen to give the public information about themselves have to wait until the end of March next year for that to happen.

“If there are PAFs out there who want to see their details on the Register, they just need to email us and ask,” she said.

The new Coalition Government has fueled uncertainty around the future of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission claiming it will dismantle the organisation.

However the Federal Minister for Social Services Kevin Andrews has indicated his support for a national register of the Not for Profit sector which would require a level of reporting from the sector.

If a PAF would like its information displayed earlier it can email the request to the ACNC at advice@acnc.gov.au.