Each year you must provide audited general purpose financial statements prepared by an independent qualified auditor. Listed providers are exempt from this.
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If your organisation is a wholly owned subsidiary of another legal entity, or forms part of a larger tax group, it must also submit the financial statements of the consolidated group for the most recently completed annual financial reporting period. These must be prepared in accordance with applicable accounting standards.
You need to submit your financial performance information to the department through HITS and action the financial milestone. See the HITS User Guide for more information.
58.1 - Qualified independent auditor
A qualified auditor is:
- the Auditor-General of a state or territory or
- a registered company auditor (within the meaning of section 9 of the Corporations Act 2001) or
- a person approved by the Secretary of the department in writing.
An independent auditor is a registered company auditor who is independent of the company being audited.
When you submit your paperwork, you should include details of the auditor's registration with ASIC.
58.2 - Annual financial statements
Each year all non-listed providers must give us audited general purpose financial statements for the financial year (within the meaning of section 323D of the Corporations Act 2001), within 4 months after the end of the financial year.
The Act doesn’t allow extensions to this timeframe. We may take compliance action if you don’t submit the required information within the 4-month deadline. If you can’t meet your statutory requirements in time, you should contact us as soon as possible to agree on other arrangements.
You must submit audited general purpose financial statements. Special purpose financial statements are not an acceptable alternative. Submitting them instead would be a compliance breach.
The financial statements must be:
- prepared by a qualified accountant (within the meaning of the Corporations Act 2001) in accordance with applicable accounting standards, and
- audited by a qualified auditor who is independent of the provider.
The financial statements must be accompanied by:
- a report by the auditor (independent auditor’s report)
- a copy of the auditor’s independence declaration required under section 307C of the Corporations Act 2001
- a declaration by a qualified accountant or auditor that the provider has, as at the date of the declaration, complied with all statutory obligations relating to the payment of:
- company tax
- goods and services tax
- withholding tax, including withholding tax for employees
- payroll tax
- superannuation guarantee for employees
- an updated and current workers’ compensation and public liability insurance policy.
If you are part of a consolidated entity, the financial statements must be accompanied by:
- a copy of the most recent consolidated financial statements for the entity prepared in accordance with applicable accounting standards and
- any additional information about the consolidated entity that the department requests.
58.3 - Submitting annual financial statements
You must submit your financial statements and accompanying documents and information through HITS. For help with this, see the HITS User Guide.
You must also complete the Financial Performance Detail section of HITS for each financial period (refer to HITS User Guide section ‘Financial Performance – Create a Financial Performance list’). The financial information input should be consistent with the audited general purpose financial statements you submitted.
You should notify the department that you have uploaded your annual financial statements to HITS. Do this using the online enquiry form on Provider Enquiries.
58.4 - Dividends and related party transactions
Your dividend distributions during a financial year must not exceed your after-tax profit for the previous financial year.
Any transaction between you and your key personnel, or related parties, may only be made:
- where the transaction is reasonably necessary for your operations and
- where the terms and conditions of the transaction are reasonable having regard to your circumstances.
Legislation: Rules s 4, s 113(1–4), s 24