Circular – 10 March 2020

ACNC Charity Portal

Dear Honorary Secretary,

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) holds registered charities responsible for their own reporting obligations. For RSL sub-Branches, these obligations are to:

• submit an Annual Information Statement (AIS) by 30 June each year; and
• maintain the register of ‘responsible persons’, including at least one ‘primary contact’.

In recent years, ANZAC House has fulfilled the obligation to lodge the AIS on sub-Branches’ behalf. However, following discussions with the ACNC in 2019, we are now asking sub-Branches to resume this responsibility. Sub-Branches are best placed to manage their own records and this change will ensure all sub-Branch records are kept up to date.

ANZAC House has already provided the names of all honorary secretaries, who should in most cases now be listed as the sub-Branch primary contact to the ACNC (the primary contact is the person the ACNC will contact if it has a question about sub-Branch records).

The following steps will guide you through setting up an account to access the ACNC online portal to manage your reporting obligations. Those sub-Branches that have already done so may disregard these steps:

1. Check your current responsible persons on the ACNC Charity Register (click here, then search for your sub-Branch and click the ‘People’ tab).
2. After noting the responsible persons, click ‘Charity Portal log in’ at the top right of the page.
3. Click ‘Sign up now’ below the large blue box.
4. Enter your RSL NSW-provided sub-Branch email address (e.g. Ariah-ParkSB@rslnsw.org.au) and click ‘Send verification code’. A code will be sent to your official sub-Branch email address (other email addresses will not work).
5. Retrieve the code from your email inbox, enter it and click ‘Verify code’.
6. Create a password, enter the name of a current responsible person from the ACNC Charity Register (see Step 1), and click ‘Create’.
7. You may be taken to an error page telling you ‘Sign in failed’ — ignore this.
8. Return to the ACNC home page and log in by again clicking ‘Charity Portal log in’ at the top right and entering the sub-Branch email address and password you just created.

Through this portal you will now have the exclusive ability to maintain all your sub-Branch records held by the ACNC, which ANZAC House will no longer manage.

If you require additional assistance, please contact your District Council in the first instance. If necessary, they will refer you to another sub-Branch that is already managing its own account. If you need further help setting up your account, you can instead contact the ACNC directly at 13 22 62 or by clicking here.

Please note that ANZAC House staff will not be able to troubleshoot this process.

Your first step once you set up your account is to ensure the sub-Branch primary contact is a member of the sub-Branch, or where other assistance is required, a responsible person appointed at a General Meeting. It is also important to note that your sub-Branch’s 2019 Annual Information Statement (AIS) is due to the ACNC by 30 June 2020.  All the information required to complete your 2019 AIS is already contained in your 2019 SBA.

Future SBA requirements are being reviewed to minimise unnecessary work.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Regards,

Jeff O’Brien

GM Member Services & State Secretary