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I am pleased to announce that Hearts of
Hope Australia has been endorsed as an Income Tax Exempt
Charity by the Australian Taxation Office.
Unfortunately, our application for
deductible gift recipient (DGR) status has been refused. This means
donations made to HoH are not tax deductible, at this stage.
Our application was submitted on the
basis that HoH Australia is a health promotion charity. The Tax
Office assesses these applications by looking at what the aims of
the organisation are and what activities are carried out to meet its
objectives. I received a rather lengthy letter from the ATO
explaining its decision and in my opinion, they have taken a very
narrow view of what we do. Their conclusion is that:
"HoH's activity does not
demonstrate that its brochures on Congenital Heart Defects help
prevent the disease from occurring or control the disease
through education to parents and medical professionals"
While we can't prevent CHDs, I do
believe we play a role in the control of heart conditions such as
HLHS. Providing information to parents so they can advocate for
their children and 'educating' doctors that may never have come
across HLHS, does lead to the control of these 'diseases'.
We have until the first week in June to
ask for a review of this decision. I am sure if we provide more
information to the ATO we will be able to successfully argue the
case that Hearts of Hope Australia is a Health Promotion Charity. I
could really use some help with this, if anyone would like to provide a submission to support our case, please contact me. |
Awareness 
