Annual reporting
The CATSI Act requires every corporation to prepare one or more reports every year and give them to members as well as lodge them for publishing on the Register of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporations.
Meeting your reporting obligations is important because it:
- provides accurate, up-to-date information on your corporation for members, communities, creditors, investors and government agencies
- builds your reputation as a trustworthy corporation that is committed to accountability
- contributes to the collective dataset about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations, used by government agencies and researchers to generate insights and determine how best to allocate resources to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- enables ORIC to assess your financial viability, governance standards and risk.
When to lodge reports
Corporations have 6 months after the end of the reporting period to lodge reports.
The ‘reporting period’ for most corporations is the 12 months between 1 July and 30 June. To have a different reporting period a corporation must be granted an exemption from the Registrar.
That means most corporations must lodge reports between 1 July and 31 December each year.
Timely lodgement of reports affirms that your corporation takes its accountability and reporting obligations seriously. There are consequences if reports are lodged late or not at all.
If you have good reasons you can ask for extra time to report or to be excused from reporting.
Lodging as soon as possible after the financial year ends helps make sure the information is accurate, especially for a general report that asks for a lot of information as at 30 June. The longer you take to report, the more challenging it becomes to get the information right, especially if you have changes to your members or directors between 1 July and when you finally do prepare your report.
If your corporation is no longer operating, your obligation to report continues until you close your corporation.
What reports to lodge
There are 4 different types of reports under the CATSI Act:
The reports your corporation needs to prepare depends on 2 things:
- its registered size – small, medium or large (check your corporation’s size in the register of corporations)
- its consolidated gross operating income (CGOI) for the reporting period.
Consolidated gross operating income or CGOI is the gross income of the corporation and any entities it controls.
Keep track of your corporation’s CGOI during the financial year so you can predict your reporting.
Learn more about corporation size and reporting in our fact sheet or use our online tool to work out which reports you need to lodge.
Responsibility for lodging reports
Directors are responsible for ensuring their corporation prepares its required reports. For corporations that are large in size, their secretary is also responsible.
Directors can delegate the power to prepare and lodge report/s to someone else but they are still responsible making sure it’s done on time and for approving the information in the reports. If reports are not done on time or at all it’s a direct reflection on the performance of those directors in charge of the corporation at the time.
Learn more about how directors can delegate their authority to lodge reports.
Detailed guidance for auditors and accountants
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporation reporting is set out in the CATSI Act and regulations.
Detailed information for auditors and accountants about reporting is in the corporation reporting guide.
Failing to report
Failing to report has consequences for your corporation, you as a director and the wider sector. To start with, it’s an offence under the CATSI Act for which you could be prosecuted and fined.
Learn more about consequences of failing to report.
View lodged reports
Anyone can view reports lodged for the most recent 2 years in the Register of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporations. Search for your corporation in the register; the reports are available via a link to documents in the search results.
Check your reporting status
Anyone can see the status and full history of a corporation’s timeliness with lodging reports by viewing its corporation extract in the 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.
Look for your corporation in the list of corporations with overdue reports.
If your corporation has been prosecuted, the outcome is listed in the prosecution outcomes.
Learn more about the Registrar's view on reporting in our position statement.