The AAT has held that Sea Shepherd Australia Limited was not entitled to be endorsed as a deductible gift recipient. In doing so, it affirmed the Commissioner’s decision to disallow the taxpayer’s objection to his refusal to endorse the taxpayer as a deductible gift recipient.
The Tribunal said the taxpayer was established by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS), a company incorporated in the USA as an international non-profit marine wildlife conservation organisation. The taxpayer was incorporated in January 2007, and is registered as an unlisted public non-profit company. The founder and president of SSCS, Mr Paul Watson, told the AAT that the taxpayer’s main activity was the conduct of what it termed “campaigns”, which are designed to protect marine wildlife from being harmed or killed by humans. The taxpayer’s activities also encompass the protection of other marine wildlife such as sharks and seals.
Division 30 of the ITAA 1997 provides deductions for certain gifts or contributions made by taxpayers. Section 30-15 makes available deductions for gifts or contributions made to certain recipients, including “[a] fund, authority or institution covered by an item in any of the tables in Subdivision 30-B” (Item 1 of the table in s 30-15). Section 30-17 relevantly requires that such a recipient be endorsed under Subdiv 30-BA as a “deductible gift recipient”. The table in s 30-45(1) sets out general categories of welfare and rights recipients. The taxpayer relied on Item 4.1.6 of that table which provides for the following category:
“a charitable institution whose principal activity is one or both of these:
(a) providing short-term direct care to animals (but not only native wildlife) that have been lost or mistreated or are without owners;
(b) rehabilitating orphaned, sick or injured animals (but not only native wildlife) that have been lost or mistreated or are without owners.”
The AAT said it did not consider that the taxpayer’s activities were confined to the protection of “native wildlife” for the purposes of Item 4.1.6, and that therefore the taxpayer was not a fund, authority or institution described in Item 1 of the table in s 30-15 and was not entitled to be endorsed as a deductible gift recipient for the purposes of s 30-125.
(AAT Case [2012] AATA 520, Re Sea Shepherd Australia Limited and FCT, AAT, Middleton J, Alpins DP, Fice SM, AAT Ref: 2010/5323, 7 August 2012.)
[LTN 152, 8/8]