ecology action sydney, now known as ecology action Australia is the legal trading name for Tom McLoughlin, the founder and owner, with 15 years in the non government sector, and operates on a non profit, low income, downshifting basis appropriate to the climate change low materialism imperative of our times. The Australian Business Number (ABN) is 506-347-944-95.

This page is to record the tax return/income details of Tom McLoughlin, as they come to hand for public transparency. To generate the tax returns we have to build an income and expenditure/deductions table which is a shoebox affair and then submit via the normal tax forms. At this humble stage we haven't included these tables just the global figures.

Also as a preface we have let this process drift in 05-06, and 06-07 (you can see earlier years below) but can confidently state that we make an atrocious loss, are pretty confident the tax office will owe us a refund when we get up to date (underway Dec 07), and make some chunky donations to important public interest projects like the Clean Columbia project (see left side bar).

We don't have any corporate or govt grants or income. We live by doing grovel, usually simple labour type jobs like delivery or gardening when not doing our (a)political ecology action.

This unorthodox 'sole trader and informal unincorporated network' structure is because our experience has taught us

• that this is the best way to avoid both sinister infiltration via otherwise innocent group process;
• secondly avoids the merry go round of grant chasing, and ngo rivalry for fundraising profile motivating grassroots action, not necessarily for the "right reasons";
• the potentially oppressive intrusions of Big Brother Govt not least the Howard Coalition years in Australia 96-07;
• On the other hand its a hard path to choose, so not for the faint hearted.

The following tax information is useful evidence of the non profit reality of ecology action sydney/Australia as an unincorporated association for the last 3 years. There no other motive except to promote ecology action.

This page also shows the management structure is based on the sole trader business model, which qualitatively is no different to a private family company with a non profit objective, or an incorporated association with a non profit objective.

The difference is it’s a benign hierarchy with final say with the founder. There is very little group process. Imagine that: No meetings, just experienced people doing stuff.

This is entirely acceptable to the Tax Office for 3 years now. There are serious penalties for misleading the tax office and documentation and receipts including international money transfer dockets etc must be kept to back up all returns. Even more so for a solicitor now in the case of the founder Tom McLoughlin. These records remain as always available for inspection as tedious as they are. In summary the tax returns show:

• commencing tax year 2002-03, including supplementary tax return section, and Business and Professional Items Schedule, notes $8550 was paid as donations support wages (to the Aysen Chilean campaigners) with a total taxable income (after rent, vehicle and stock purchase expenses) of, to quote the tax office assessment of 16^th July 2004 “No tax is payable on your taxable income of $280.” A pittance. 
• Similarly for tax year 2003-04, $7,152 was paid as donations support wages to the Aysen Chilean campaigners with a total taxable income (after rent, vehicle and stock purchase costs) of $11,821 and to quote Tax Office assessment of 4^th Feb 2005 tax owed of “$745” which was paid over 3 months in installments. (Probably excessive tax, as  there was an income duplication error in my paperwork.)
•  Similarly for tax year 2004-05, $1528 was paid out in donations, and after usual running expenses a taxable income of $7602, and to quote the tax office of 18th^th Nov 2005 “Your taxable income is $7,602 ....Actual amount payable [$] 37.30”.

In other words the income drawn by the only full time staff member of ecology action being the founder is on average just less than $6570 per year and is obviously non profit. How many other green groups or idealistic politicians can boast this kind of commitment?

The objective of the founder based on these last 3 years trading as ecology action sydney, and demonstrated by large donations in years previous to that, is to donate any income above bare living expenses to environmental projects to indeed promote ecology action. It’s called having a vocation.

We say this outstanding voluntary income minimisation and disbursement to worthy environmentally friendly groups and projects, especially through in kind support,  is what being a true activist is all about.