Hi ,
In recent years, Australians have been shocked by media report after media report about alleged tax evasion by some religious organisations.
Even Labor’s Andrew Leigh last year said he, too, was concerned by claims in mainstream media that the Church of Scientology had been shifting wealth and assets to Australia, where it enjoys tax concessions.
Now that Dr Leigh
has oversight of the charities sector as part of the Albanese ministry, we think it’s the right time for him to address the issue. We’ve written to him to urge the government to tackle reform of the charities tax system and the automatic exemption status for entities claiming to be religious.
In our letter, we argued that it was
not at all clear that organisations that ‘advance religion’ necessarily contribute benefit to the public.
