Legal Issues Briefing/Report
Question
Declaration of Authorship
I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of a university or other institution of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment is made in the acknowledgments.
Table of Contents
Legal Issues Breifing/report.. 4
Company Mission & Vision Statements. 4
Company Programmes/Activities. 4
Shareholder Report / Accountabilities. 4
Evaluation of Company Legal Structure. 5
Executive Summary
This report is about True Jesus Church, its activities, its legal structure, its background and its lawfulness. It critically evaluates the legal validations given to this charity and scrutinizes the status of the organization as Charity. It also defines the legal framework on which the charity is based.
Lastly, it verifies all the tax exemptions, taxations and rebates liable to the Charity and recommends people to join this trustworthy charitable trust.
Legal Issues Briefing/Report
Introduction
This report has been written to assess the legal structure of any non-profit organization. Here, the reference NPF organization ‘The Association of the True Jesus Church Inc’ to gain about the legal insights of this organization. How it works? Where it gets its finances from? Is it completely lawful? and many more.
This report basically testifies its identity as charity or other charity types such that its practices can be termed as ‘legal’ or ‘unlawful’. It also states the tax benefits to which these kinds of organizations are entitled to.
Company Description
This is a non-profit organization that is indulged in religious activities by providing religious services, evangelistic services and religious education classes to the society. The organization came into existence in 1917. It has been registered as the ‘other incorporated entity’ that conveys about the entity being similar to a company but is not registered as corporation’s law company in July, 2000. The companies in this category include an overseas branch of company not situated in Australia with titles occasionally ending with ‘incorporation’, affiliations integrated under State act and integrated charitable trusts.
It is an independent body founded by Lord Jesus Christ whose existing membership has moved up to 1.5 million in 60 countries.
The company has been registered under GST since July 1, 2000 and its main branch is positioned in Chandler in QLD 4109. The Association of the True Jesus Church Inc is recorded as a non-profit organization with Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission since December, 2012.
Company History
This charity is founded in Beijing, China. After being granted the Holy spirit and revealing the true gospel, its workers spread out the teachings about the truth of redemption in every Chinese province. The indications and miracles occurred via the occurrence of the Holy spirit have furnished the Power of God.
It then moved to Taiwan in 1926 and further to many Asia-pacific countries. Later on it became one of the largest Christian churches there. In the decade of 1960s, continents like North America, Europe and Australia were also not left untouched and later reached to other continents as well.
True Jesus Church strongly believes that the ability and directions of the Holy spirit will help its followers to formally declare gospel to every part of the world and caters the spiritual needs of all believers. This is a continuous process. The membership of Church has been planned to be expanded by studying scriptures, prayer and mutual motivation.
Besides being involved in the religious activities, the church has also endorsed literature about the gospel of Christ which can be downloaded by visiting the church’s website at no cost.
Company Legal Structure
This organization registered as Charity with ACNC has been casted with a special status under law. The criteria for being a charity can be list out as not-for-profit, fulfilling charitable cause for public service, not indulging in unlawful practices like promoting and opposing any political entity or individual for a political office.
It is a mandate for the charity to get registered with ACNC before being endorsed by Australian Taxation office for sanction of charity tax rebates. For registration with ACNC, the charity should be in compliance with its governance rules. Once ACNC decides to register the organization as charity, it is generally accepted by ATO. Then ATO takes decision about the appropriate concession depending upon the subtype of the registered charity.
The Association of the True Jesus Church Inc has been registered as Charity under the Charities act 2013. This is the act in article 100 that defines charity and charitable purpose as well as other relational purposes.
The Charities act caters to various kinds of charities existing for different purposes. Public Benevolent Institution (PBI) that does charity for giving relief to people from impoverishment, diseases, stress and weakness. It works by providing goods and services to needy people and allow them benevolent relief. Of course, registration with ACNC is a must.
In case of Health Promotion Charity, the main focus is on controlling and preventing human diseases. It works by spreading public awareness about the causes and preventive measures of a particular disease. It also encourages medical research to find further about a disease. For the people who are suffering from the disease, it provides medical aid to them and educate its care provider about the disease.
It also encourages people to adopt a particular lifestyle with healthy eating and exercising habits and actions catering well-being.
Even though the charities are liable to pay GST but any company or charity registered with Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission and endorsed by ATO will be exempted from the Income tax funds. Even if the charity is not exempted from GST in a wholesome manner but if gets indulged in any transaction with endorsed charities, it has got some relief in areas like gifts and GST credit adjustment, accounting on a cash basis, non-commercial activities, donating second-hand goods, tickets to Raffle and Bingo sold through charity, fundraising events, non-profit funding bodies, reimbursing volunteer’s bill.
The Charity is also entitled for Fringe Benefits Tax Rebate that may equal to certain portion of the gross FBT paid that is subjected to a restricted doorstep. Any charity qualifying for this rebate is termed as ‘rebatable employer’. Their liability may get reduced by 48%, if the restricted threshold equals $30,000 by year end 2015, the rebate may be 49% if the restricted threshold of $31,117 is achieved by the end of year 2016 and it may reach to 47% subjected to the restricted threshold of $30,000 by the end of 2018. If the sum up of fringe benefits will exceed the restricted threshold of an individual, he or she or any other entity will not be able to claim for the liability on the additional amount.
The rebate from this kind of tax is totally subjective to the restricted threshold. Suppose if the benefits exceeds the restricted threshold then the employer will be in a position to be entitled for FBT. In case of PBIs and HPCs, if the total sum of fringe benefits reaches to $30,000 for every employee then they get exemption from FBT. This was applicable for 2015. Similarly, there are different amounts for the financial years 2016, 2017 and 2018.
For public, not-for-profit hospitals and ambulances the threshold has been decided as $17,000 for 2015, $17,667 for 2016 and 2017 and $ 17,000 again for the year 2018.
Evaluation of Company Legal Structure
The Association of the True Jesus Charity is truly an NFP organization as it is registered with ACNC without whose registration the company cannot obtain the status of charity and won’t be able to enjoy all the taxation benefits by ATO that are made specifically for charities.
Looking at the membership status and the presence of this charity across the world, it is been established that the charity is soon going to achieve its mission of reaching to every corner of the world.
The charity is totally functional on funding, gifts and tax exemptions. Hence, there is no point in creating shareholders for the same.
Conclusion
Based on the associations and certifications obtained by The Association of the True Jesus Charity Inc, it can be declared that the practices followed by this organization are completely lawful and it can continue its mission of getting as many memberships as possible.
This organization is a charitable trust as it has been accepted by Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission to be registered as ‘Charity’. After that it became entitled for various kinds of tax concessions by obtaining the endorsements from ATO.
The Charity has gained all the legal certifications after almost 80 years of its establishment when legal acceptance of such charities was questioned. Even though it is being funded by its members in all these years still the charity wants to establish itself completely as a Charitable trust and applied for tax rebates like Income tax and GST.
With all these efforts it is made sure that the charity is soon going to achieve its objectives.
References
- Charitable Tax Exemptions, ABN Lookup, < http://abr.business.gov.au/Help/CharitableTaxConcession>
- Current Details for ABN 12304695872, ABN Lookup, < http://abr.business.gov.au/SearchByAbn.aspx?SearchText=12304695872&Postcode=ALL&StateOptions=1%2c0%2c0%2c0%2c0%2c0%2c0%2c0%2c0&NameOptions=1%2c0%2c0%2c0%2c0%2c0%2c0&SearchWidth=Typical&MaxResults=201>
- Request publication, Explore More, True Jesus Church, < http://www.tjc.org/order/>
- Find:Peace, True Jesus Church, < http://www.tjc.org>
- Facts and History, True Jesus Church, < http://www.tjc.org/about/factsHistory.aspx>
- Three Generations, Two Languages, One Family, pp. 64-109, < https://books.google.co.in/books?id=xcim-FFhvy4C&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=The+Association+Of+The+True+Jesus+Church+Inc&source=bl&ots=gjQnjpOwuM&sig=79vDlHFc7QkjLriOIDde9WtBKD8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiXk8CJsLDUAhXHuo8KHYkGCdsQ6AEIZzAN#v=onepage&q=The%20Association%20Of%20The%20True%20Jesus%20Church%20Inc&f=false>
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