CA ANZ and CPA Australia have lodged a joint submission with Charities Services to its consultation on proposed changes to its forms. We focused our feedback on the proposed changes to the Annual Return Forms related to financial information.

We support reviewing the Annual Return Forms as a result of the Charities Amendment Act 2023 and the External Reporting Board (XRB) revised Tier 3 and 4 reporting requirements. In particular, we support aligning the Annual Return Forms with the revised Tier 3 and 4 reporting requirements and enhancing the consistency and comparability of financial information on the Charities Register.

We support the proposal to give Tier 4 charities the option of completing a combined Annual Return Form and Performance Report that enables compliance with the Tier 4 reporting requirements. We agree that only requiring a single form to be completed would help make reporting easier for the smallest of charities. For charities that still wish to prepare a separate Performance Report, we support the ability to choose to complete the standard Annual Return Form and attaching a Performance Report instead.

However, we have made some specific detailed recommendations for improving certain aspects of the forms.

Charities Services is hoping to have the new forms ready by the middle of next year.