CPA Australia pushes for charity status

Accounting body CPA Australia is pushing to be granted non-profit charity status, arguing its work educating the public on taxation matters entitles it to more generous tax treatment.

CPA Australia, Australia’s largest accounting body with more than 130,000 members, is appealing to the Federal Court about charitable status, after an initial application and appeal were unsuccessful.

“The law has been ambiguous in this area for many years, and we would like to test the law,” CPA Australia head of business and strategy Paul Drum says, pointing to a recent draft ruling from the Commissioner on the definition of a charity.

It is not known how much money CPA Australia could save from a change of status.

“From my perspective, if you look around, there are other member bodies that have charitable tax status,” Drum says. “It’s a matter of public interest that the law is clarified.”

The Taxation Institute is deemed charitable, but the Institute of Chartered Accountants and Institute of Public Accountants are not.

“We’re an educational body that does a lot of work in the public interest,” Drum says.

Yasser El-Ansary, of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, said today he was watching CPA Australia’s push.

El-Ansary says the ICA, which has 55,000 members, is not only involved in furthering the education outcomes of its members, but focused on policy development and analysis work.

He says while policy development and analysis is not a basis for seeking charitable institution recognition, if the ICA decided down the track that it wanted to put a case forward to the Tax Office, the depth and breadth of its work would be important.

According to El-Ansary, while income from members is tax-exempt, tax is payable on activities that don’t involve members, such as external training and development courses – although the latter work is not a huge part of ICA’s income.

According to CPA Australia’s 2010 report, member subscriptions accounted for $58 million of its $137 million in revenue.