Here is a draft Business Plan for the Charities Directorate of CRA. It will be helpful for people who want to understand how the Charities Directorate operates and what it prioritizes.
Here is the executive summary:
Section 1 Executive Summary
The Charities Directorate (the Directorate), of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), is responsible for all program activities related to the provisions of the Income Tax Act regarding registered charities, and other qualified donees. The Compliance Division (the Division) contributes to the overall mission of the Directorate through a variety of education and enforcement activities, thereby contributing to the integrity of the charitable sector and the social well-being of Canadians.The 2019-2020 fiscal year will see the Division continue to grow its relationships with other areas of CRA, in an effort to address overlapping areas of non-compliance that impact the integrity of the tax system in Canada. This will likely involve taking increased enforcement action against high risk charities that are clearly not fulfilling the obligations of registration as a charity.
Nonetheless, the Division will not neglect its commitment to provide an education first approach to compliance with registered charities. During 2019-2020, the Division will continue to address lower risk non-compliance outside of the audit process, though an established array of compliance treatments. This approach allows increased sector coverage using the same amount of resources, when compared with solely addressing non-compliance via audit.
The 2019-2020 fiscal year will see the culmination of the Directorate’s Charities IT Modernization (CHAMP) project, with the deployment of the Charity One/Bienfaisance Un (C1/B1) system. This will include new electronic services, including online filing of Form T3010, “Registered Charity Information Return”. The online filing of the T3010 is intended to promote voluntary compliance by making it easier for charities to meet their information reporting obligations. The C1/B1 system will also have a major impact on how some sections of the Division perform their duties and provide service to the charitable sector.
There is a good description of the Compliance Division Structure:
The Division is comprised of seven sections located at Headquarters (HQ) and charity teams located in five Tax Service Offices (TSOs) across the country. A brief summary of the responsibilities of each HQ section and of the charity teams in the TSOs is provided below:
The Filing Enforcement Section is responsible for administering the processes related to all types of revocations of registered charities and RCAAAs, administering the Part V/revocation tax provisions for revoked charities, and handling returned mail.
The Monitoring Section is the expert on the processing of the Registered Charities Information Return (T3010), and provides HQ support to the keying centre in Summerside. This section addresses a high volume of low risk non-compliance in regard to the T3010, which includes ensuring charities file the correct version of the T3010.
The Workload Development and Quality Assurance Section (Workload) is responsible for risk assessing and screening files for all of the Division’s compliance treatments. Also, it develops and provides the necessary budgets, planning documents, training, business tools, and other relevant information to support the Division’s operations.
The Assisted Compliance Section (ACS) is responsible for promoting compliance through variety of compliance actions. This includes restricted desk audits of high risk charities, and targeted education and outreach interventions for lower risk files. In addition, ACS oversees the Charities Education Program (CEP), which includes the creation of all procedures, tools and resources for the CEP Officers who are located in the TSOs.
The Audit and Field Support Section (AFSS) provides ACS and the TSOs with advice and guidance on technical issues related to ongoing audits and to the outcomes of audits, including overseeing the application of sanctions.
The Technical Audit Section (TAS) is a specialized team responsible for providing advice and guidance on technical issues related to high-risk non-compliant files that are at the AU03 level. The T AS was created this year to work collaboratively with the High Net Worth Compliance Directorate within the International Large Business and Investigations Branch to address these files through the [redacted16(1 )(c)] and Aggressive Tax Planning.
The Operations and Policy Support Section (OPSS) is the primary point of contact for advising the auditors in the TSOs during their audits. They provide guidance and advice on the application of charity related policies, legislation and case law to aid in evaluating whether organizations under audit operate charitably. Also, the OPSS is the Division’s primary representative in addressing audit trends or concerns with respect to charity
related policies, legislation and case law.The Charity Teams in the TSOs (the TSOs) are comprised of auditors and officers from the Domestic Compliance Program Branch (DCPB), and are located in the five regional TSOs across the country. The TSOs are responsible for conducting field audits at the AU01/SP06 level and at the AU02 level, and for conducting the CEP visits.