Finally. It took more than 3 years but CRA has identified that it has revoked a charity for in part having “ineligible individuals” controlling the organization. I was sure that I was going to die of old age before that…
In Narul Hassan vs. The Queen it is another false receipting case. “It appears almost certain that this program involved a fraud on the Canadian tax system, and therefore on the Canadian public. It is not clear to me…
In The Queen's Speech 2014 it notes the introduction of a bill to protect charities. Here is a quote from The Queen's Speech 2014: Draft Protection of Charities Bill The purpose of the draft Bill is to: Create a…
CRA has appealed the decision of David, R. et al. v. The Queen (TCC) to the Federal Court of Appeal. This case involved six separate appeals with respect to the disallowance of a tax credit by CRA for a purported…
The Kathryn Kossow v. Her Majesty The Queen application for leave to appeal was dismissed with costs by the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) on May 15, 2014. The Federal Court of Appeal released its adverse decision against the taxpayers in December 2013.…
Here is a note from the New Zealand Charities Services, which is a branch of the Department of Internal Affairs. It describes an interesting meeting held in Australia between different charity regulators including the Charities Directorate. International Charities Regulators’ meeting…
I recently requested numbers from CRA on abusive charity gifting tax schemes. The number are trending down. 2006 was the highest at $1.3 billion. 2011 was $299 million. 2012 was $273,000. 2013 preliminary numbers are $100,000 but as we know…
The decision of David, R. et al. v. The Queen (TCC) discusses six separate appeals which concern the disallowance of a tax credit for a purported charitable gift to CanAfrica International Foundation (“CanAfrica”). CanAfrica issued to each of the appellants…
The CRA has updated its “media kit” and specifically the facts and figures section. Here is some of the information from the CRA website: Charities facts and figures The number of registered charities continued to grow in 2013. As of…
Here is an updated version of the Blumbergs Charity Legal Checklist. We hope that you find it a useful tool to help your Canadian registered charity deal with compliance issues. It is a work in progress so please do send in…
In an article entitled “Canada Revenue Agency expands investigations of tax shelters”, Kevin Donovan of the Toronto Star discusses how “As many as 12 charity tax shelter promoters are under criminal investigation for schemes that saw donors contribute millions of…
Many Canadian non-profit corporations don't know about the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (“CNCA”) which came into force in 2011 and requires that all existing Canada Corporations Act (CCA) non-profit corporations must transition to the CNCA by October 17, 2014. Corporations that do not…
In the Holst case the Honourable Justice Judith Woods rejected certain taxpayers alleged donations to a church. She noted: “[9] I accept that Mr. Holst and Ms. Hillier attended church services at Israelite and Celestial and that…
In Johnson v. The Queen the Tax Court of Canada dealt with a case in which Mr. Johnson had made claims in 2002 and 2003 taxation years for donations of $18,550 and $15,500 respectively. Mister Justice Campbell concluded “It is my view that…
The Department of Finance has released the “Notice of Ways and Means Motion to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 11, 2014 and other measures and Explanatory Notes”. Some of the provisions were announced in…
Here is the Blumbergs’ 2013 Receipting Kit. Download Article
Here is an interesting case in which a municipality, that was allegedly involved in a charity scheme, wanted leave to intervene in a Tax Court of Canada matter involving a donor who had made a donation to the municipality. The…
The Charity Commission of England and Wales notes that “There is genuine and desperate need for humanitarian assistance to help people affected by the conflict in Syria. UK charities and their partners are playing an important role in the delivery…
Today Finance Minister Jim Flaherty introduced the Canadian Federal Budget 2014. The budget had a large number of provisions dealing with non-profits and charities. Here are some excerpts from the Federal Budget in one PDF document. Overall I was…
Today Finance Minister Jim Flaherty introduced the Canadian Federal Budget 2014. The budget had a large number of provisions dealing with non-profits and charities. Here are some excerpts from the Federal Budget in one PDF document. Overall I was…
The UK Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has issued reports on the Charities Commission and UK tax authorities (HMRC) and their handling of regulatory matters. The Charities Commission has put out a press release with a very solid response to the…
On January 10, 2014 David Ajise, a former tax preparer operating in Toronto, was sentenced to a 30 month jail term for fraud over $5,000. Ajise is the former proprietor of Datronix Solutions, a tax preparation service. A CRA investigation…
Probably not. Otherwise that would be about 5-10 times more funds than all Canadian registered charities spent on political activities in 2012. In fact, when we reviewed who spent the most on political activities it appears to me that the…
The problem of “abusive charity gifting tax schemes” continues. These are schemes that promise that if you put in say $1000 through a complicated scheme you will end up with a $5000 receipt and therefore you can save $2500 in…