“The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission has been asked to investigate the Australian Christian Lobby over its role in helping Israel Folau raise more than a million dollars for his legal fight against Rugby Australia (RA).
Folau raked in more than $1.5 million in donations on Tuesday through a relaunched ACL fundraising platform, despite having a GoFundMe page banned on Monday due to a breach of the website’s terms and conditions.
It was also revealed on Tuesday that Australia’s largest crowdfunding platform, MyCause, also knocked back an initial request from Folau’s camp to relaunch his fighting fund…
… In a statement, the commission said it "expected all registered charities to meet their obligations under the ACNC Act and the Governance Standards".
“The ACNC can investigate concerns that a charity has breached the ACNC Act or the Governance Standards," the statement said. "This may include not pursuing its charitable purpose, not operating in a not-for-profit manner, or providing private benefits to members."
According to the ACNC, a charity must be able to show that the use of its funds furthers the charitable purpose in which it is registered, meaning the ACL would need to prove it is “advancing religion”, for example, by agreeing to help raise money for Folau’s individual purposes…
… Meanwhile, Folau may be able to claim some of the legal expenses used to fight his wrongful dismissal action as a tax deduction, while keeping the donations.
Industry body Tax and Super Australia's tax counsel John Jeffreys said legal expenses were not generally tax deductible in unfair dismissal cases because the person was no longer earning income and therefore the costs were treated as being of a capital nature.
“However, there are situations in which legal expenses can be tax deductible,” Mr Jeffreys said.
“If you get an amount that’s in compensation for lost wages then that itself is income and therefore it makes the expenses tax deductible.”
Folau is suing for $5 million in lost salary in addition to the loss of commercial opportunities such as future contracts and sponsorship deals, as well as the cost of missing out on the Rugby World Cup and the chance to become the greatest Wallaby try-scorer.
Mr Jeffreys said in such cases compensation would usually be awarded in a lump sum and the tax office would then treat the cost of his legal action as a capital expense, which would not be tax-deductible.
But if he was claiming that he had been wronged in the termination of his employment, any compensation he received would not be subject to capital gains tax."
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