PBCs and RNTBCs
Accounting for PBCs and native title corporations
Prescribed bodies corporate and registered native title bodies corporate are registered under the CATSI Act and report to the Registrar like any other corporation. But the way native title money is received, held and accounted for raises questions ordinary corporation reporting does not.
PBC or RNTBC?
The two names describe the same corporation at different stages, and the distinction trips people up more than it should.
A prescribed body corporate is the corporation a native title group nominates to hold native title as trustee, or to manage it as agent. Once the Federal Court has made a determination and the corporation is entered on the National Native Title Register, the same body is a registered native title body corporate. For reporting purposes nothing changes at that point: it was registered under the CATSI Act before, and it still is.
Reporting obligations
Because a PBC is a CATSI Act corporation, the reporting framework is the one described on our ORIC reporting page: reports lodged within six months of the end of the reporting period, with which reports apply depending on the corporation’s registered size and income.
Checked against ORIC — Native title and RNTBCs, .
What is different about a PBC
Start with the part that is not different, because it saves a lot of worry:your reporting obligations are the same as any other corporation registered under the CATSI Act, set by your registered size and income rather than by being a PBC. Same reports, same deadlines. See corporation size and when reports are due.
What is different is the layer of obligation sitting on top, because a PBC answers to three sets of rules at once: the CATSI Act, the Native Title Act, and the Native Title (Prescribed Bodies Corporate) Regulations 1999. The CATSI Act carries special rules for RNTBCs so that those duties do not conflict with each other. In practice that means:
- Registration under the CATSI Act is not optional. An RNTBC must be registered under the Act to legally hold or manage native title rights and interests on behalf of common law holders.
- The rule book has to do more work. An RNTBC’s rule book has to align with the native title rules as well as the Act, including procedures for accepting and cancelling memberships. Every RNTBC must have rules about disputes and about who is eligible to be a member.
- Native title decisions have their own process. Alongside ordinary corporate decisions, an RNTBC makes decisions about native title matters and about compensation applications, and there are rules about how, including consulting the common law holders.
- A dispute resolution process is required. Where a dispute is about whether someone is a common law holder, your native title representative body or service provider may be able to help; the National Native Title Tribunal has mediators for native title disputes.
- Fees for native title functions are reviewable. An RNTBC can charge fees for certain native title functions, and the Registrar has the power to review whether a fee charged is appropriate.
None of that is accounting, and we do not advise on any of it. It is here because it shapes the records a PBC has to be able to produce: decisions, consultations, fees charged. Those are the records that turn out to be missing when somebody finally asks for them.
Checked against ORIC — Native title and RNTBCs, .
Native title money
This is the part that makes PBC accounting different, and it matters for reasons that go well beyond compliance.
Money that comes to a corporation in connection with native title, whether from agreements, from compensation or from use of country, ultimately concerns the common law holders. They are entitled to understand where it came from, where it went, and on whose decision. The Registrar’s own guidance on native title money is built around exactly that: keeping a record of money in and money out, documenting the decisions made about benefits, and reporting in a way that lets common law holders follow the story.
Good accounting is what makes that possible. In practice it means native title money tracked separately from operational funding and from grants, decisions recorded alongside the transactions they authorised, and reporting a member can actually read, not just a compliant set of accounts.
Where money is held on trust, or where a separate charitable trust is involved, the accounting gets more demanding again. The tax treatment is its own subject. See are native title benefits taxable?, which covers the distinction that catches most boards out. If that is your corporation’s situation, it is worth a conversation rather than a web page.
What we don’t do
We do not advise on native title law, and we do not speak for native title holders. Those are matters for native title lawyers, the representative bodies, and the common law holders themselves. Our work is the accounting and the reporting, done alongside whoever else your corporation has engaged.
And we are your accountant, never your auditor. That is always a separate firm, because independence is what makes an audit worth having. We will help you find one.
Frequently asked questions
Do PBCs report to ORIC like other corporations?
Yes. A prescribed body corporate is registered under the CATSI Act, so it reports to the Registrar in the same framework as any other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporation — reports lodged within six months of the end of the reporting period, with obligations depending on registered size and income.
What is the difference between a PBC and an RNTBC?
They are the same corporation at different stages. A prescribed body corporate (PBC) is nominated by the native title group to hold or manage native title. Once a determination is made and the corporation is entered on the National Native Title Register, it is a registered native title body corporate (RNTBC). The reporting obligations under the CATSI Act do not change with the label.
Do you advise on native title itself?
No. Native title law is not our field and we would not pretend otherwise — that is work for native title lawyers and the representative bodies. We work on the accounting: how money is recorded, how the corporation reports, and how the board can show common law holders where funds have gone.
Can you work with our representative body or lawyers?
Yes, and it is usually the sensible arrangement. Where a corporation already has legal advisers, a representative body or a funder involved, we work alongside them rather than duplicating what they do.