A UK law firm Farrer & Co recently published an article entitled “Tax reputation for high-profile individuals and corporations – being ‘legal’ is not enough”. Although it is a UK article it provides some important points for Canadians who are…
The CRA recently released a press release that “Stéphane Saintonge, one of the promoters of an art-donation scheme to the municipality of Larouche in the Saguenay region, pleaded guilty to a tax evasion charge today before the Court of Quebec…
The New York Times discusses the conviction of Msgr. William J. Lynn, a former cardinal’s aide, in Philadelphia and describes it as “becoming the first senior official of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States convicted of covering up…
Here is the cost decision of Strathy J. in the Cannon v Funds for Canada Foundation et al class action case. Cannon v Funds for Canada Foundation et al HEADNOTE: Reasons for costs. Citation: 2012 ONSC 3009 RE: Michael…
We have noted for a number of years that almost $500 million in “false” receipts have been issued. These are fraudulent receipts – no complicated scheme is involved and typically is no donation at all to a charity. (These are…
The Charity Finance Group is a group of charity finance managers based in the UK. They prepared recently a “Guide on Charity Fraud: A guide for the trustees and managers of charities”. Canadian charities may find the free guide helpful…
Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf of CharityVillage recently wrote an article “Don’t be a nonprofit party to terror” which discusses regulatory and risk management issues for charities in the area of preventing terrorism. Here is a link to Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf’s article “Don’t be…
A few weeks ago CRA revoked the charitable status of an environmental group for involvement in an abusive gifting tax scheme. Sorry to disappoint some but no political activities here. The Canada Revenue Agency revokes the registration of Escarpment Biosphere…
Here are the letters from CRA to HEDAC (Help Eliminate Disease and Addiction Canada) which explain why HEDAC was revoked for cause. Letters from CRA to HEDAC
The Globe and Mail had an article today entitled “Noose tightens around donation tax schemes”. It discusses litigation around some schemes that the CRA characterizes as “abusive gifting tax schemes”. Here is a link to the Globe and Mail article:…
The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer has released a very interesting report entitled “Cost Estimates of Proposed Tax Measures to Encourage Charitable Donations of Assets”. It was written by Stephen Tapp. It looks at the effect of increasing certain…
According to Danie Huppé-Cranford, Director of the Compliance Division of the Charities Directorate the tentative 2011 numbers for abusive charity gifting tax schemes in Canada are down slightly in 2011 compared to 2010. The 2011 tentative numbers for abusive charity…
Here is an updated version of my article Top Ten Canadian Charity Law Issues. incorporating some of the recent changes. A lot has happened over the last 2 years and here is an updated version of Top Ten Canadian Charity…
Here are some comments from Cathy Hawara, Director General of the Charities Directorate, relating to the issue of Canadian charities and ineligible individuals rules in the 2011 Federal Budget. “Now I’d like to move on to another significant change of…
Here is an opinion piece that appeared in the Toronto Sun entitled “Beware of too-good-to-be-true tax shelters”. Beware of too-good-to-be-true tax shelters
The Toronto Star on May 14th reported that “Seven charitable tax shelter promoters whose schemes have left thousands of Canadians with a $5 billion financial headache are under criminal investigation.” Here is the article: Charity tax shelter promoters face criminal…
Here are some webinars with Daniel Brunette on receipting by Canadian registered charities. 101 – Émission de reçus aux fins de l’impôt (Receipting 101- Receipting Basics) https://ocsa.webex.com/ocsa/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=TC&rID=9379322&act=pb&rKey=5197eab786ed8884 201 – Situations spéciales et défis (Receipting 201 –…
So much is written about legal issues relating to charities in Canada. In this article I try to distill the ten most important things you need to know about charity law in Canada. Here is an updated version of the…
I presented to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance today along with 5 other witnesses. There was a lively discussion of transparency, cross border philanthropy, tax incentives and preventing abuse of registered charities. Here is a copy of…
The Canada Revenue Agency has revoked the registration of Help Eliminate Disease and Addiction Canada as a registered charity. Here is the notice from the Canada Gazette: CANADA REVENUE AGENCY INCOME TAX ACT Revocation of registration of a charity…
The Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) is holding hearings on tax incentives for charitable donations. Here is the Finance Committee: Chair – James Rajotte Vice-Chairs – Scott Brison, Peggy Nash Members Mark Adler Guy Caron Shelly Glover Randy Hoback Brian…
The Charity Commission of England and Wales has released its revised Counter-terrorism Strategy recently. It also has links to a number of helpful UK guidances on how charities should operate to avoid involvement with terrorism. Many of the same principles…
Here is an interesting article entitled “The worst way to judge a charity”. Notice in paragraph 3 an attack on Canada! The worst way to judge a charity Here is an excerpt: Donating to charity is a worthy action. But…
On April 20, 2012 CRA released a new Guidance on Fundraising for Canadian registered charities. This guidance is the most important information from the Charities Directorate on the obligations of Canadian registered charities when it comes to fundraising. Here is…