Medium Charities are able to obtain a review instead of an audit and small charities are not obliged to have either. Nevertheless, many of those charities continue to obtain an audit, even though that is more onerous than a review and is required to be conducted by a Registered Company Auditor. Mel Yates at the ACNC discusses with CPA Australia whether charities should be encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity for red tape reduction and what impediments to the conduct of reviews need to be overcome.  Or does an alternative solution need to be explored?

The ACNC was created in 2012 by the ACNC Act and has now been in operation nearly 5 years. Read the inaugural commissioner’s, Susan Pascoe, reflection on those first 5 years in ACNC five years on: Reflections of the Inaugural Commissioner, Susan Pascoe AM in which she notes that, under the Charities Act, the ACNC Act is required to be reviewed after five years in operation. That review is expected to be announced in 2017 and stakeholder input sought.