Oh it seemed to be a bit too good to be true... and apparently, it was. So, last night I wrote that I only needed to just complete the non-profit self-assessment for the tax exemptions. Easy, I had already run through the questions, and as a cultural non-profit association... we easily fit the bill and would fall into the category of tax exempt.

But, as I went to do the self assessment today... it looked like the form had changed slightly, and it meant that potentially we had failed at the first hurdle!

... and as I looked further into it. It appeared that there were now new rules for tax-exemption for non-profits that were classed as charities (of which, culture and arts is one of the sub categories...). Sigh, and that would mean that instead of self-assessment and reporting... that it would mean that we would need to register formally with the Australian Charities and Non-Profits Commission... and that would mean making accounts, and then applying for registration and then tax exempt status.

... and let me tell you, government red tape and forms are no fun at the best of times... and they are even worse when you are an arts organisation as none of the questions in the templates online fit what we do.

As an example of the question flows...

What are your non-profit objectives:

• Easy... giving concerts amongst other things... its there in the cover sheet of our constitution... not sure why you need to as again.

What activity are you involved in delivering?

• Easy again, concerts... amongst the other things like workshops and education and recordings.

How does this activity further your non-profit objectives?

• Ummmm... concerts deliver concerts? Am I speaking to an AI or a private school person, sometimes it is hard to tell.

Describe your activity:

• Okay, we play music in public... that is called a concert.

Who benefits from your activity?

• Well, I hope the audience isn't permanently turned tone-deaf... does that count?

How will you deliver your activity?

• WTF @$%@$#%@#$^%$^%$^#%^#$%&%^)(#$%)@$#(

Honestly, at this point... I'm seriously wondering why we are even creating jobs for people to come up with this sort of crap. No wonder it is difficult to tell AI apart from things... its not because AI is getting good, it is mostly to do with the fact that there is a lot of meaningless drivel out there.

Anyway... I've pretty much gotten through the whole thing... I had to write up a register of interests and a conflict of interest policy and all of that sort of stuff. Mostly, it was just taking the existing templates and plonking the relevant details and names in the right places. But those are also an excercise in saying the obvious or nothing in as many words as possible... some of them weighed in at around 20 pages with no meaningful content other than long words and intricate logic mazes that turned you around in circles without ever clarifying anything... speaking of which, the entire tax-office and charities interface was an infinitely self-referencing logical nightmare as well!

Kafka, eat your heart out... I thought it was supposed to be an in-joke about government bureaucracy... but it turns out that the joke is that it is actually real, and there are real human beings trapped in it churning out this stuff for other people to get lost in! And lets not kid ourselves, academia and the private sector are also full of this meaningless guff as well...

I can also be found cross-posting at:
Hive
Steem
Publish0x

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