In the case of Glooscap Heritage Society v. The Queen, a charity had its charitable status revoked for improperly issuing tax receipts and operating for the benefit of a tax shelter. The Charity filed an objection to the revocation and…
The Charity Commission notes that the Guidance “explains trustees’ duty to prevent their charity being used to promote extremist views or terrorist ideology. The toolkit also suggests steps trustees can take to minimise risks associated with particular activities, such as…
In a recent Tax Court of Canada case Afovia v. the Queen, Paris J. decided that CRA can revoke a charity for issuing official donation receipts that do not have all the mandatory elements on them. As well, CRA can…
The Canadian Government has reminded Canadians to be careful when donating to charities, especially when the donation is part of a scheme offering more tax incentives than the cash contributions. If you are interested in more details on how to…
The Canadian Bar Association PracticeLink Solo and Small Firm Bulletin has sent a note to its members “Tis the season: CRA warns about gifting tax shelter schemes. Whether you approach them as a lawyer or as a tax-payer, gifting tax…
Canadians in late November and December each year really focus on charitable donations. Here is a microsite I worked on to help Canadians understand how to thoughtfully select charities to donate to. www.smartgiving.ca
The Toronto Sun has written a followup article on the involvement of the mayor of London, Ontario in a type of tax shelter that CRA refers to as an “abusive charity gifting tax shelter.” The Toronto Sun notes “As choppy…
According to CRA “The Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) audit has revealed that the Organization failed to devote its resources exclusively to its own charitable activities by participating in a promoted donation arrangement in 2008. As a direct result, the Organization…
On June 28, 2012, in Barrie, Ontario, a fundraiser named Adam Gour was convicted by McIsaac, J. of fraud for failing to disclose commissions to donors and deceiving donors. The decision may be appealed. The Gour case is important because…
The Canada Revenue Agency has changed some of their procedures to deal with gifting tax shelter schemes. Below is a press release from CRA. What is interesting first of all is that they call them “gifting tax shelters” in the…
Here is a recent press release from CRA. They went after a tax preparer for issuing some false donation receipts. “Brampton tax preparer guilty of tax fraud scheme Brampton, Ontario, October 18, 2012…The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced today…
Here is a press release from the CRA entitled “The Canada Revenue Agency revokes the registration of Glooscap Heritage Society as a charity ” Despite what some have been suggesting these “abusive charity gifting tax schemes” are not dead. According…
I finally worked out why we have not been that successful in getting rid of those who are involved with charity fraud in Canada. Take a look at this story on CNN. Google search reveals true identity of suspect in…
I sometimes laugh when I see some of the things that lawyers think are worthy of comment. For example really esoteric cases. Then almost two weeks ago there was an important decision in the extremely backlogged Tax Court of Canada…
Here is a recent decision of the Tax Court of Canada in Kossow. After the Marechaux case, Kossow is the most important case on abusive charity gifting tax schemes. The Tax Court of Canada decided “As in Maréchaux, there…
I will be delivering a presentation to the Canada Southern Africa Chamber of Business 2012 8th Risk Mitigation Program in Toronto on October 16, 2012 on the subject of “CSR with Canadian Charities – Opportunities and Pitfalls”. Here is a…
In February 2012, the Charity Law Information Program (CLIP) had a very successful “Being Good at Doing Good” conference. We had about 250 attendees in Toronto and the conference lasted 2 days. We had some of the top experts from…
I will be delivering for the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation a full day workshop entitled “Charity Law Boot Camp: compliance and standards issues for Canadian Charities”. It will be on October 12 at Carleton University. Here is the announcement…
Recently the Department of Finance requested submissions on “Strengthening Canada’s AML and Anti-Terrorist Financing Regime”. I sent in a submission that focussed specifically on the vulnerabilities of charities. Here is a copy of my submission on Strengthening Canada’s AML and…
The CRA has announced new charity information sessions for September and October. Here is some information from the CRA website: Charities Information Sessions registration The Charities Information Sessions are offered to all registered charities. These free sessions are an…
The Charities Directorate of the CRA has posted a page on CIDA’s Sahel Crisis Matching Fund. Here is a link to the CRA’s Sahel Crisis Matching Fund page Here is the text of the page: “Sahel Crisis Matching Fund…
The Canadian government is launching a matching program for donations made by Canadians to organizations from August 7 – September 30, 2012. CIDA notes: “An estimated 18.7 million people in the Sahel region in West Africa are affected by a…
The Standing Committee on Finance Pre-Budget submission deadline for the 2013 Canadian Federal Budget has passed. I put in a brief submission with a number of recommendations including: Recommendations: 1) We need better governance in the charity sector through education…
In Edwards v. The Queen, 2012 TCC 264 (July 23, 2012) the Tax Court dealt with whether it would allow a further delay in hearing a test case related to what CRA terms an abusive gifting tax scheme. This case…