After almost three decades of dealing with governance for Canadian registered charities and non-profits and their directors, Mark Blumberg has now created a course to help non-profits and charities understand governance. We hope that you find it helpful. Here is a…
CPATA, the Canadian Regulator of Patent Agents and Trademark Agents, is warning the public in its May newsletter again about questionable trademark emails circulating. We have touched upon this issue before in this blog on November 14, 2024. CPATA is…
The Charities Directorate of CRA has recently updated the registered charity penalty and suspension page. It is laid out more clearly. For example, they specify whether a particular intermediate sanction applies to: Charitable organizations Public foundations Private foundations RCAAAs RJOs…
The Charities Directorate of CRA is encouraging Canadian registered charities to “Take action during Charity Fraud Awareness Week”. This is a UK initiative, but the CRA works with other charity regulators as part of the International Charity Regulators group. CRA…
There are so many weird, wonderful, and inaccurate things I hear about Canadian charities, compliance and CRA audits. Anyway nice to see CRA updating information on compliance for Canadian registered charities. CRA also provides further updated statistics below. What is…
Here is the press release from CRA: Fugitive Brampton tax preparer caught and jailed for $34 million fraudulent charitable donation scheme March 22, 2024 Brampton, Ontario Canada Revenue Agency The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced today that Festus Bayden…
CRA has a new page encouraging taxpayers not to become involved in inappropriate tax schemes, including those offered by some charities. The page is located here. Here is the text of the page: Beware of tax schemes that…
Just a reminder that Canadian charities are not allowed to support terrorism. Doesn’t matter whether you are Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Jewish or secular. If you’re a Canadian charity and, you are supporting terrorism, you can expect to be revoked,…
I don’t think I often meet people who, when faced with an equal path, one very difficult and one easy, deliberately take the difficult path. Almost everyone is looking for simple solutions. How to save time, how to save money.…
We have urged that the Charities Directorate in Canada be given more leeway to provide information to the public when charities are involved with serious non-compliance. Here is an example of a submission we recently made to the Finance Committee…
Here is the Blumbergs’ Pre-Budget Submission for the 2024 Canadian Federal Budget. For those who have been following our law firm’s submissions over the last ten or more years, they have focused on transparency and accountability in the non-profit and…
The CRA recently sent a response to the Canadian Tax Foundation on the new qualifying disbursement/grant to grantee and directed donations provisions. As many are aware, section 168(1)(f) of the ITA was amended to provide that CRA can revoke a…
Here is an updated Canadian Charity Legal Checklist by Mark Blumberg – July 2023. It is a checklist for Canadian registered charities to assist them with managing compliance issues. We use it as part of our informal risk reviews for…
I will be presenting a webinar for Charity Village on October 19, 2023 on Top 10 Compliance Issues for Canadian Charities. Here is a blurb: Top 10 Compliance Issues for Canadian Charities A great deal has been written about legal…
Not sure how many people have an hour to hear me discuss with Mary Barroll, President of CharityVillage, issues facing the Canadian non-profit and charity sector. For those who are interested in the sector and its future, it may be worthwhile. I try…
There is horrible news coming out of Kenya where a Christian religious cult told followers they would go to heaven if they starved themselves to death. About 89 bodies have so far been recovered. While this particular event may be…
It is tax time so just a reminder that there are still “abusive charity gifting tax schemes“ which promise that you will yield more tax savings than your investment CRA has already declined over $7 billion worth of receipts from…
I have learnt that one sometimes needs patience when dealing with the Federal government. For example, when you put in an ATIP request, they have 30 days to respond. Thirty days may seem like a long time, but I got…
As we have noted before in our blog on November 28, 2022, entitled Statement by the Canada’s Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson on CRA examination will be significantly hindered by the confidentiality provisions of the ITA relating to charities, Canada’s Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson will…
After advocating for over a decade that the confidentiality provisions of the Income Tax Act of Canada need to be updated, Canada’s Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson has noted that the confidentiality provisions relating to registered charities, amongst other matters, will hinder their…
I recently checked the Advance Search page of the Charities Listing. CRA has now added another search function which divides groups into “Type of Qualified Donee,” and there are now listed namely: 1) Registered Charities (85,842 in total) 2) Registered…
In our article, How much should a Canadian registered charity spend on administration (2022), we discuss how CRA has not provided guidance as to the acceptable amount that a Canadian registered charity can spend on administrative expenses, but it will…
In this CRA presentation from November 2019 entitled Charities and Aggressive Tax Planning Dual Audit Project, the CRA discusses the partnership between the Charities Directorate and the High Net Worth Compliance Directorate.
Here is a slide deck from CRA entitled Charities Directorate Plans and Priorities 2019 – 2020. It sets out the top priorities of the various divisions within Charities Directorate. It notes the policies they are working on updating, the priorities…