On June 8, 2022, the House of Commons considered a private members bill namely C-240, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (donations involving private corporation shares or real estate). The vote was for second reading and having the bill be referred to a committee. More MPs voted against the bill than for and it was defeated. 146 voted for and 171 voted against.
The bill would have provided that in addition to a donor receiving a donation tax credit when donating real estate or private company shares that the donor would also receive an exemption from capital gains tax when the appreciated property is donated to a Canadian charity.
I am pleased that this bill did not pass. The cost would have been huge and most of the benefit of the bill would have been for a small number of very wealthy individuals and their private foundations. Yes, I am sure some of it would one day make it to operating charities but the cost would have been tremendous. In one PBO report, the PBO notes that their estimate of the “total net cost [to the Federal government] of this measure to be $777.5 million over the first 5 fiscal years of the policy.” That is just the Federal government, not provincial governments. I can think of a lot of things that it would be better to spend a billion dollars on.
With income inequality skyrocketing in Canada, this is definitely not the sort of initiative we need in Canada today. You can read more about the concerns with this type of bill in my blog from 2021.