{"id":"F2025L00247","name":"Veterans’ Entitlements (Means Test Treatment of Private Companies—Excluded Companies) Declaration 2025","slug":"veterans-entitlements-means-test-treatment-of-private-companies-excluded-companies-declaration-2025","collection":"legislative_instrument","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":106059,"registerId":"commonwealth-F2025L00247-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-03","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Veterans’ Entitlements (Means Test Treatment of Private Companies—Excluded Companies) Declaration 2025","content":"![Coat of Arms of the Commonwealth of Australia](image.001.jpeg)\n\nVeterans’ Entitlements (Means Test Treatment of Private Companies—Excluded Companies) Declaration 2025\n\nThe Repatriation Commission makes the following instrument.\n\nDated 19 February 2025\n\nThe Seal of the\n\nRepatriation Commission\n\nwas affixed to this instrument\n\nin the presence of:\n\n| Alison Frame | Mark Brewer      |\n| ------------ | ---------------- |\n|              | AM CSC and Bar   |\n| President    | Deputy President |\n| Gwen Cherne  | Kahlil Fegan     |\n|              | DSC AM           |\n| Commissioner | Commissioner     |\n\nPart 1 Preliminary\n\n1 Name\n\nThis instrument is the Veterans’ Entitlements (Means Test Treatment of Private Companies—Excluded Companies) Declaration 2025.\n\n2 Commencement\n\nThis instrument commences on the day after the day it is registered.\n\n3 Authority\n\nThis instrument is made under subsection 52ZZA(5) of the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986.\n\n3A Repeal\n\nSchedule 11 to the Veterans’ Affairs (Legislative Instrument Re-making Exercise) Instrument 2014 is repealed.\n\n4 Purpose\n\nThis Declaration specifies a class of companies that are excluded companies for section 52ZZA of the Act.\n\n5 Definitions\n\n  In this instrument:\n\n> Act means the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986.\n\n> community purpose means a purpose that is intended to benefit primarily the members of a particular community or group.\n\n> government body means the following kinds of body:\n\n> (a) a department or agency of the Commonwealth;\n\n> (b) a department or agency of a State or Territory;\n\n> (c) a municipal corporation or other local government body;\n\n> (d) a body corporate in which the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory body holds a controlling interest.\n\n> income means income within the ordinary meaning of that expression.\n\n> indigenous-held land has the same meaning as in section 4B of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act 2005.\n\n  \n\nPart 2 Specified class of companies\n\n6 Companies with community purpose are excluded companies\n\n(1) Each company that meets the requirements in subsection (2) is an excluded company for section 52ZZA of the Act.\n\n(2) The company must have the sole dominant purpose of:\n\n(a) receiving, managing or distributing property transferred directly to it, or through an interposed entity, by a government body for a community purpose; or\n\n(b) holding, managing or disposing of indigenous-held land, for a community purpose; or\n\n(c) receiving, managing or distributing income that:\n\n(i) has been generated from indigenous-held land; and\n\n(ii) is applied for a community purpose.","sortOrder":0}],"analysis":{"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"A positive credit balance is required for all requests, including BYOK, so fallback providers remain available. Add credits at https://vercel.com/d?to=%2F%5Bteam%5D%2F%7E%2Fai%3Fmodal%3Dtop-up to continue.","source":"analysis-cron"},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This instrument appears to maintain the same scope as its predecessor (Schedule 11 to the Veterans' Affairs (Legislative Instrument Re-making Exercise) Instrument 2014, which is repealed by section 3A). It continues the specific exemption for community-purpose companies from the private company means test provisions. The remaking exercise suggests this is a routine republication to ensure legislative instruments remain current, rather than an expansion of scope."},"complexity_factors":["Short instrument with only 6 substantive sections","Minimal cross-referencing (only references to section 52ZZA of the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 and section 4B of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Act 2005)","Only 5 defined terms in the interpretation section","Simple conditional structure: single test with three alternative limbs (subsection 6(2)(a)-(c))","No nested exceptions or complex temporal provisions","Straightforward purpose-based test ('sole dominant purpose') without quantitative thresholds"],"plain_english_summary":"This instrument excludes certain private companies from the means test used when assessing veterans’ pensions and benefits, so their assets and income aren’t treated as the veteran’s personal wealth. It applies where a company’s sole dominant purpose is to manage or distribute government-transferred property, Indigenous-held land, or income from Indigenous land for a community purpose.\n\nThat protects community-focused entities—especially those serving Indigenous communities—from causing veterans to be unfairly denied benefits."},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":4,"scope_assessment":{"changed":true,"description":"Yes. The instrument expressly repeals Schedule 11 of the 2014 re‑making instrument (cl 3A) and then specifies a new, narrower class of excluded companies focused on companies with a sole dominant community purpose relating to government transfers or indigenous-held land (cl 6). That repeal plus the new criteria changes which private companies will be treated as excluded under s 52ZZA."},"complexity_factors":["Cross-reference to Veterans’ Entitlements Act section 52ZZA creates interpretive dependency on external statute (cl 3).","\"Sole dominant purpose\" threshold requires factual and possibly evidentiary assessment of corporate purpose (cl 6(2)).","Broad defined terms—\"community purpose\" and \"government body\"—require application to varied factual settings (definitions, cl 5).","Interposed entities and corporate structures raise questions about look-through treatment and attribution of transfers (cl 6(2)(a)).","Use of the statutory definition of \"indigenous-held land\" imports another statute’s meanings and rules (cl 5).","Repeal of prior Schedule 11 may alter prior coverage and requires checking historical instruments for transition effects (cl 3A).","Operational compliance burden on companies to demonstrate qualifying purpose and on administrators to verify exclusions (cl 6)."],"plain_english_summary":"This Declaration designates certain private companies as “excluded companies” for the veterans’ means test (section 52ZZA of the Veterans’ Entitlements Act). A company is excluded if its sole dominant purpose is to manage property transferred by a government body for a community purpose, to hold or manage indigenous-held land for a community purpose, or to manage income from indigenous-held land used for a community purpose (cl 6(2)).\n\nIt affects private companies, veterans whose assets are assessed, and government bodies that transfer property or income, because exclusion changes whether assets or income held through those companies count in veterans’ means tests (cl 6; cl 5)."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/veterans-entitlements-means-test-treatment-of-private-companies-excluded-companies-declaration-2025","history":"/api/acts/veterans-entitlements-means-test-treatment-of-private-companies-excluded-companies-declaration-2025/history","analysis":"/api/acts/veterans-entitlements-means-test-treatment-of-private-companies-excluded-companies-declaration-2025/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/veterans-entitlements-means-test-treatment-of-private-companies-excluded-companies-declaration-2025/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/veterans-entitlements-means-test-treatment-of-private-companies-excluded-companies-declaration-2025/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/veterans-entitlements-means-test-treatment-of-private-companies-excluded-companies-declaration-2025/documents"}}