General reports
Who needs to provide a general report?
All Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations must lodge a general report every financial year.
New corporations registered between January and June can choose to lodge a short or long first general report.
When do general reports need to be lodged?
General reports are required to be lodged between 1 July and 31 December each year.
Lodging as soon as possible when the financial year ends will help make sure the information is accurate.
New corporations have a different reporting period for their first financial year.
Exemptions and extensions
Corporations can apply for an exemption or extension, in certain circumstances. The Registrar, however, is not likely to grant exemptions for a general report.
Usually the Registrar only grants extensions or exemptions when unexpected circumstances beyond the corporation’s control happen.
The Registrar will not normally grant an extension where annual events make it hard for a corporation to follow the rules.
What’s in the general report?
All general reports have information about the corporation, its people and its financial information.
About the corporation
This section includes the corporation’s:
- name
- Indigenous Corporation Number (ICN)
- Australian Business Number (ABN) – if it has one
- size
- main place of business
- registered office or document access address
- contact details
- activities.
Corporation’s people
This section has information about:
- the contact person or secretary
- directors.
Basic financial and employee information
The financial section includes information on:
- income
- assets
- deductible gift recipient status
- number of employees.
Declaration
The general report also must include a declaration that the information given in the report is correct. The declaration can be made by:
- a director
- the secretary if it’s a large corporation
- a person who has delegated authority from directors to lodge forms and reports through myCorp.
If the directors delegate lodging the report to someone else, the declaration must be based on a resolution of the directors.
List of members
Include a list of members with the report. This list is an important part of the corporation’s details on the public Register of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporations.
A list of members is a copy of the register of members at a moment in time. With your general report, you must provide the list as at 30 June.
Some corporations provide their member list to ORIC once a year but others lodge updates all year round. Keeping information up to date as changes happen makes it easier to complete the general report each year, particularly if you have a lot of members. It can also help resolve membership enquiries or disputes if the member list is up to date on the public register.
Learn more about updating members.
How to check if your corporation has lodged its general report
Anyone can see the status and full history of a corporation’s timeliness with lodging reports by viewing its corporation extract in the public Register of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporations.
Find your corporation in the Register of corporations; the extract is available via a link in the search results.
General reports are lodged and published to ensure transparency and accountability to members. Members have the right to access the general report and question directors about timeliness and accuracy of reports.