Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act 1990 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 4 · Countering Foreign Influence: General*
16A. Reporting of reportable donations
Feedback & supportLast amended by an amending law of 2019.
Subject to this Act, every reportable donation accepted by any religious group during each reporting period must be disclosed to a competent authority in accordance with this section.
religious group
“religious group” includes —(a)any company or other body corporate incorporated under the Companies Act 1967 or any other written law for the purpose of promoting any religion, religious worship or dealing with religious affairs or practising, conducting, teaching or propagating any religious belief; and(b)any body of persons, whether or not registered as a society under the Societies Act 1966, whose object is the promotion of any religion, religious worship or the practice, conduct, teaching or propagating of any religious belief.
Disclosure to a competent authority of reportable donations received during a reporting period and accepted by a religious group must be in a donation report relating to the reporting period that —
is in the form required by the competent authority;
is given to the competent authority within the time delimited by subsection (3) and in the manner prescribed in regulations made under section 19 or, subject to those regulations, as approved by the competent authority;
contains the prescribed details of every reportable donation accepted by the religious group during the reporting period, and the prescribed particulars of each donor;
is signed by every responsible officer of the religious group; and
is accompanied by a declaration in subsection (4) made by every responsible officer of the religious group.
Subject to subsection (5), disclosure of reportable donations accepted by a religious group during a reporting period must be given to a competent authority no later than 1 April of the year following the year in which the reportable donation was accepted.
The declaration required by subsection (2)(e) to accompany a donation report of a religious group must contain a statement that, to the knowledge and belief of every responsible officer of the religious group —
no other reportable donation has been accepted by the religious group during the reporting period to which the donation report relates; and
if the religious group is one to whom a restraining order under section 8(1A) is given, no religious donation which is prohibited by that order has been accepted by the religious group during the reporting period to which the donation report relates.
Regulations made under section 19 may prescribe a longer period for the purposes of subsection (3).
In this section —
“appointed day” means the date of commencement of section 13 of the Maintenance of Religious Harmony (Amendment) Act 2019;
“initial reporting period” means —
the period starting on the appointed day and ending on 31 December of the same year that appointed day falls, unless paragraph (b) applies; or
the period starting on the day the religious group is incorporated or formed (being after the appointed day), and ending on 31 December of the same year the day the religious group is incorporated or formed falls;
“reporting period” means the period of 12 months starting 1 January and ending 31 December in any year, and includes an initial reporting period.