Singapore legislation
Clause 5
Clause 5
Registration of charities
(1)
The Commissioner shall establish and maintain a register of charities in which shall be entered such particulars as he may from time to time determine of any charity registered therein.
(2)
There shall be entered in the register every charity not excepted by subsection (4); and a charity so excepted may be entered in the register at the request of the charity, but (whether or not it was excepted at the time of registration) may at any time, and shall at the request of the charity, be removed from the register.
(3)
Any institution which no longer appears to the Commissioner to be a charity shall be removed from the register with effect, where the removal is due to any change in its purposes or trusts, from the date of that change; and there shall also be removed from the register any charity which ceases to exist or does not operate.
(4)
The following charities are not required to be registered, that is to say: —
any charity specified in the Schedule to this Act; and
any charity which is excepted by regulations made under this Act.
(5)
With any application for a charity to be registered there shall be furnished to the Commissioner copies of its trusts (or, if the trusts are not set out in any document, particulars of them) and such other documents or information as the Commissioner may require for the purpose of the application.
(6)
It shall be the duty —
of the charity trustees of any charity which is not registered nor excepted from registration to apply for it to be registered, and to supply the documents and information required by subsection (5); and
of the charity trustees (or last charity trustees) of any institution which is for the time being registered to notify the Commissioner if it ceases to exist, or if there is any change in its trusts, or in its particulars entered in the register, and to furnish the Commissioner with particulars of any such change and copies of any new trusts or alterations of the trusts,and any person who makes default in carrying out any of the duties imposed by this subsection shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and the Commissioner may by order require that person to make good that default.
(7)
The register (including entries cancelled when institutions are removed from the register) shall be open to public inspection at all reasonable times, except in so far as regulations otherwise provide.
(8)
This section shall not apply to charities taking effect before the commencement of this Act until such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint; and different dates may be appointed for different charities or classes of charities.