The Annual Information Statement (AIS) is an online form that asks a range of questions about a charity's operations and finances over a 12-month period.
Charities registered with the ACNC must submit an Annual Information Statement every reporting period. Some charities may be exempt from submitting the Annual Information Statement, or answering some of the questions. You can find more information about exemptions on this page.
The ACNC does not charge charities a fee to submit the Annual Information Statement.
To submit your charity's Annual Information Statement, log in to the ACNC Charity Portal and click on your charity's name.
Select 'Manage reporting' to access the Annual Information Statement.
Why charities have to complete the Annual Information Statement
The ACNC Act requires registered charities to submit an Annual Information Statement for each financial year.
The Annual Information Statement supports our work to:
- maintain, protect and enhance public trust and confidence in the sector through increased accountability and transparency
- promote the reduction of unnecessary regulatory obligations on the charity sector.
These are two of the three objects contained in the ACNC Act.
We use responses to Annual Information Statement questions in a variety of ways. Once we receive your charity’s responses, we:
- publish the information - excluding some personal information - on the ACNC Charity Register, unless your charity successfully applies to have that information withheld
- use the information to administer the ACNC Act, including assessing your charity's entitlement to registration, and its compliance with the Act
- may share that information with other authorised Australian government agencies through the Charity Passport, removing the need for those agencies to ask you for the same information
- share it with researchers through data.gov.au, contributing to charity sector transparency
- analyse it in order to tailor our guidance and education to charities and the sector, as well as to provide information to donors, volunteers and the public in an effort to build greater understanding of the sector
- monitor trends in the sector by comparing information over reporting periods.
As part of our work to reduce red tape, the ACNC has streamlined arrangements in place with other federal and state and territory regulators.
Charities that meet the requirements to participate in these streamlined arrangements only need to report to the ACNC in the Annual Information Statement. We pass this information on to the other regulator, and this will fulfil the other regulator's reporting obligations as well.
To see if your charity is eligible to participate in a streamlined reporting arrangement, see our guidance about red tape reduction.
What we ask for in the Annual Information Statement
The Annual Information Statement includes questions about your charity and its activities. It also asks for some basic financial information about your charity, as well as asking questions that help us understand the charity sector and reduce its overall reporting burden.
Some questions are mandatory, others are optional.
Medium and large charities are also required to submit an annual financial report with their Annual Information Statement. Small charities can choose to submit a financial report, but it is not mandatory.
Most charities already collect the information we ask for in the Annual Information Statement. Often this information is collected for their members, donors, supporters and grant providers, or to include in their annual reports.
When to submit your Annual Information Statement
The typical ACNC reporting period is based on a standard financial year, which runs from 1 July to 30 June. If your charity wants to report for a different financial year period, you must apply for a substituted accounting period.
The Annual Information Statement will be due six months after the end of your charity's reporting period.
Read more about Annual Information Statement due dates.
The Annual Information Statement for newly registered charities
Charities are only required to report to the ACNC in the Annual Information Statement from the date that they became a registered charity.
This means that charities start reporting from the registration decision date on which the ACNC registered the organisation as a charity, rather than from any earlier date that the charity may have been entitled to registration.
If your charity applied to backdate its registration with the ACNC, it will still only need to report in the Annual Information Statement from the registration decision date.
If we register your charity within three months of the end of its reporting period, your charity does not need to submit an Annual Information Statement or an annual financial report for that reporting period. For the following reporting period, your charity will need to submit an Annual Information Statement (and an annual financial report, if required) for the reporting period from the registration decision date until the end of its first full reporting period.
For charities that are registered more that three months before the end of their reporting period, they need to report in the Annual Information Statement from the registration decision date until the end of that financial year.
Example
XYZ Charity became registered as a charity with the ACNC on 5 April 2021. The charity now wishes to know when its first Annual Information Statement is due, and what period of time they need to report on. The charity operates with a standard financial year, ending on 30 June 2021.
Because XYZ Charity was registered within three months of the end of its reporting period, it is not mandatory for it to submit an Annual Information Statement for the reporting period ending 30 June 2021.
The charity needs to report from their registration decision date (5 April 2021). This means that it has two options for completing its first Annual Information Statement:
Reporting for more than 12 months in the following reporting year
XYZ Charity does not need to submit the 2021 Annual Information Statement for the reporting period ending 30 June 2021.
Instead, it will report for the first time in the 2022 Annual Information Statement, and this will cover the period from the registration decision date to the end of the following reporting period - 5 April 2021 to 30 June 2022.
Voluntarily reporting for less than three months in the current reporting year
XYZ Charity can voluntarily submit the 2021 Annual Information Statement, and will report for the period from the registration decision date until the end of that reporting period - 5 April 2021 to 30 June 2021.
Then, in the following reporting period, it will submit the 2022 Annual Information Statement for the standard financial year, from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022.
There is more information about the Annual Information Statement, including how to report for newly registered charities, in our Commissioner's Policy Statement: Annual Information Statements.
Charities exempt from submitting part or all of their Annual Information Statement
In certain circumstances, some charities may be exempt from answering some questions in the Annual Information Statement, or may not be required to submit an Annual Information Statement at all.
Charities that are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations are regulated by the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC), and do not need to submit an Annual Information Statement or annual financial report to the ACNC.
Read more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations, and the obligations these organisations have to ORIC and the ACNC.
A Basic Religious Charity is a type of religious charity that meets six specific criteria.
Basic Religious Charities must submit an Annual Information Statement each year, but do not need to:
- answer the financial information questions, or
- submit an annual financial report, even if they are a medium or large sized charity.
Read more about Basic Religious Charities and their obligations to the ACNC.
Non-government schools that are registered charities with the ACNC can use special reporting arrangements we have established with the Department of Education to streamline their government reporting obligations.
Charities that are eligible to participate in this reporting arrangement do not need to provide financial information in the Annual Information Statement. Instead, they need to complete the Department of Education's Financial Questionnaire.
Read more about these arrangements for non-government schools.
Withholding requests, group reporting and bulk lodgement
Information published on the ACNC Charity Register is accessible to the public.
However, if your charity believes there are valid reasons for us not to publish some of the information you submitted in your Annual Information Statement, you can apply to have that information withheld from the Register.
Only information that fits within certain criteria can be withheld. This includes information that may be commercially sensitive, or may cause harm if published. We may still publish this information if the public interest in doing so is greater than the risk.
Your charity can submit a request to withhold information through the ACNC Charity Portal. Find out more about how we decide what information to withhold.
Some charities are able to report to the ACNC in the Annual Information Statement as a group, rather than individually.
If you want your charities to report to the ACNC as part of a group, you must first apply for group reporting.
Bulk lodgement is the process that allows you to submit 10 or more Annual Information Statements on behalf of multiple registered charities on a single form.
Bulk lodgement is commonly used by corporate trustees administrating multiple trusts, or by denomination administration offices overseeing multiple religious charities.
Read more about group reporting and bulk lodgement.
After you submit your charity's Annual Information Statement
Information provided in your Annual Information Statement will be published on the Charity Register, unless you successfully apply to withhold some of that information.
After you submit the Annual Information Statement, you will be able to download a PDF copy of your completed Annual Information Statement from the receipt page. You will also receive a confirmation email with a reference number for your submission.
If you identify a material error in an Annual Information Statement or annual financial report your charity has submitted, you need to amend that submission in the Charity Portal.
For small charities, this amendment is due within 60 days of you identifying the error. For medium and large charities, the amendment is due within 28 days of you identifying the error.
To amend the Annual Information Statement, please follow these steps:
- Sign in to the Charity Portal and click on your charity's name.
- Go to 'Manage reporting' and click on the icon 'Amend [year] AIS'.
- The Annual Information Statement will open on the receipt page, so use the headings at the top to navigate to the section that you need to amend.
- Correct the errors in the Annual Information Statement.
- Return to the end of the Annual Information Statement and complete the declaration.
- Submit the amended Annual Information Statement.