CRA has noted on the Charities IT Modernization Project (CHAMP) page that internal divisions will be able to access the CRA online system without obtaining a new BN number. In September of 2017 we blogged about developments relating to “head bodies” and…
Barry Bussey published an op ed in The Province on the Canada Summer Jobs program and the reluctance of the CRA Minister to release it guidance on religion which has essentially been complete for a number of years. Bussey is…
[UPDATE – CRA no longer accepts the T2050 form. If you send it in it will be returned to you. You can apply online for a charity application at Apply to become a registered charity. As of March 2021, in a…
CRA has recently updated their guidance RC191 – Qualified Donee Becoming a Prescribed University Outside Canada (CRA). The changes are minor. They have updated the Charities and Giving links to the new Canada.ca website. For a more in-depth discussion of…
Last year CRA moved its website from www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/ to the super cool Ok it was not CRA moving their website but they were dragged kicking and screaming to the Government of Canada website. Giant waste of time and necessitating many…
Over the last 10 or more years, we have published over 2500 blog posts. Except for a few avid readers, that might be a little overwhelming so we have started to create a directory of some of the top resources…
The CRA has been working for years on the Charities IT Modernization Project or CHAMP. CHAMP is going to affect charity applications in that they will need to be filed electronically, as of November 2018. CHAMP will also allow charities to…
Here is our note “Common Paragraphs for an Administrative Fairness Letter from the Charities Directorate of CRA“. It contains explanations of common concerns that CRA may find during an audit that, unless appropriately addressed, may result in various penalties, sanctions or…
In this article “Top 68 CRA Reasons for Denying your Canadian Registered Charity Application” we have obtained from CRA a list of some of the most common and not so common reasons for CRA to be concerned with a charity…
School boards can be registered charities. But school boards can also fit into another category of qualified donee that provides the ability to issue receipts with far less compliance obligations. CRA recently released a letter discussing whether school boards are…
The CRA has responded to some questions that were posed at our recent Charity Law Institute session. The presentation by Tania Lewis and Jennifer Fraser of the Charities Directorate was on the new CHAMP or Charity Modernization Program of CRA which will result…
The CRA has recently announced the launch of a new program called the Charities Education Program. The program is going to have CRA auditors visit charities but not in the normal audit capacity. The CRA anticipates that about 500 of these visits…
Canada has an unusually generous system in which foreign universities that have a couple of Canadian students studying there can obtain the equivalent of Canadian registered charity status with almost none of the obligations. Here is an article describing that…
There are approximately 32,000 registered charities in Canada that are religious charities. They account for approximately 40% of all the registered charities in Canada. It is important that Canadian registered charities are aware of CRA‘s views on what is religion and…
In July 2016 the Income Tax Rulings Directorate of CRA wrote to the Charities Directorate clarifying the procedure for reviewing whether aboriginal bands should be viewed as qualified donees. Very importantly the CRA ITR Directorate concluded “it is our view that…
CRA has just published a lengthy page on Personal information of directors, trustees and like officials that discusses how the Charities Directorate uses personal information provided in a charity application and in your registered charity's annual filings. Here are the top 10…
The CRA has published its Guidance CG-028 Head bodies and their internal divisions on September 22, 2017. It discusses what is a head body and what is an internal division and what CRA will require for registration as a charity. This guidance…
The CRA sent out an email to certain stakeholders on June 20, 2017 announcing that they will no longer be accepting charity applications with draft governing documents. We will discuss the impact below. For those wanting charity status, you will need…
CRA recently updated their guidance with respect to becoming a prescribed university outside of Canada. There are about 600 foreign prescribed universities and they can issue official donation receipts similar to a Canadian registered charity. The updated CRA publication (RC…
The Canada Revenue Agency (‘CRA’) recently updated the T2050 form used by organizations when applying for charitable status with the Charities Directorate of the CRA. On the last page of the form, CRA has included a privacy disclosure which indicates that CRA…
In Canada, the Charities Directorate of CRA reviews carefully all registered charity applications. Some of the latest statistics from the CRA show that most charities that apply for registration are not granted it. It is not that these organizations are…
The Chronicle of Philanthropy had an article entitled “Fewer Groups Got Charity Status in 2015, but Numbers Still High“. It notes a slight reduction in 501(c)3 tax-exempt applications in 2015 of only 86,915. This was in part because of a controversial move…
I never thought I would live to see the day. Yes a popular magazine has a story that revolves around the T2050 – Application to Register a Charity Under the Income Tax Act. Now Magazine has an article entitled “Men’s…
Anecdotally, it feels like the charity application process has become harder. We have before published stats on the registrations of Canadian registered charities by the Determinations section of the Charity Directorate and so I thought I would crunch some numbers.…