Stats Can recently released their Charitable Donors, 2019 report. I have been critical of StatsCan in the past for their annual reports on charitable donations. My concerns have been around equating claiming something on a tax return with being “generous”…
Here is an announcement from CRA relating to new webinars dealing with gifting and receipting on March 30 and March 31, 2021. . Charities information webinars Dear Stakeholder, I am pleased to announce the return of the charities…
Recently a bill was proposed in the Senate –BILL S-222 An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (use of resources), which will eliminate the “own activities” requirement of charities and change the rules for Canadian charities working with non-charities,…
Recently a bill was proposed in the Senate –BILL S-222 An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (use of resources), which will eliminate the “own activities” requirement of charities and change the rules for Canadian charities working with non-charities,…
Recently a bill was proposed in the Senate –BILL S-222 An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (use of resources), which will eliminate the “own activities” requirement of charities and change the rules for Canadian charities working with non-charities,…
Recently a bill was proposed in the Senate –BILL S-222 An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (use of resources), which will eliminate the “own activities” requirement of charities and change the rules for Canadian charities working with non-charities,…
After my very disappointing first read of the “Report #1 of the Advisory Committee on the Charitable Sector” which was just released last Friday here are some further thoughts. This is the first report. The Advisory Committee on the…
The US largest organization representing non-profits, which has over 25,000 non-profit members, has called for the IRS to eliminate their Form 1023-EZ charity application. They call for “the need to eliminate Form 1023- EZ and restore integrity to the process…
2020 was a turbulent year. The CRA has updated their document P113 – Gifts and Income Tax for 2020. The P113 is a helpful guide to the tax consequences of donations to registered charities and qualified donees. The big change…
As we noted previously the Federal Government has launched pre-budget consultations for the 2021 Federal Budget. Here is the Blumbergs’ Pre-Budget Submission relating to charities, transparency and other related issues. Here are our main recommendations: Primary Recommendations Recommendation 1: That…
The CRA recently released the Report on the Charities Program 2018 to 2020. If you are very interested in the charity sector in Canada you might find it interesting reading. A few quick thoughts: Both the Commissioner and the Director-General…
Canada just added 13 new listed terrorist organizations including the Proud Boys, Atomwaffen Division, the Base, and Russian Imperial Movement. They also added Al Qaida affiliates, ISIS affiliates and a Kashmiri group. As Public Safety notes “When an entity is…
There are over 600,000 directors of Canadian charities alone. There are many more people in Canada who serve on the boards of non-profits that are not charities. Non-profits and registered charities need to have directors who are capable, caring, connected…
The CBC’s Jason Proctor wrote an article today on “Pandemic tests limits of religious freedom as churches set to fight B.C.’s COVID-19 rules in court: Group of churches claims public health measures unfairly target religious gatherings“. It quotes Mark Blumberg and…
After years of seeing less and less transparency about registered charities in Canada coming from the CRA, for various reasons, we now have one improvement from CRA in terms of disclosure about foreign activities. I want to commend them for…
I recently ran across a very good article entitled: “Going the Extra Mile: The Liability of Foreignness in U.S. Foundation International Grantmaking to Local NGOs”. It was written by three US professors namely Carrie R. Oelberger, Jesse Lecy, and Simon…
Mark Blumberg will be delivering a webinar for Blackbaud on “Tax Receipting and the Top Compliance Issues for Canadian Charities“. Here is further information: Tax Receipting and the Top Compliance Issues for Canadian Charities January 21, 2021 at…
We recently did a course entitled Multiple Corporate Structures for Canadian For-Profits, NPOs, + Charities to Enhance Flexibility and Impact. People who run charities, for-profits and non-profits in Canada and wish to understand the benefits of multiple entities for liability…
An interesting report from the OECD on charities in many different countries recently was published. It was given a really exciting title namely “Taxation and Philanthropy” so you might have missed it at the checkout at your local grocery store. …
We have been blogging about CRA’s draft guidance “Advancement of religion and charitable registration” in 2009, 2017 and 2018. Essentially CRA has been working on the document for a long time and their first draft was put out 11 years…
We recently received a copy of the CRA Ministerial Welcome Package which is dated November 2019. There are a number of references to charities including on pages 39, 64, 65, 73, 87-88, 95 and 120. There is no reference in the…
In a recent CRA document, we obtained that was released through access to information, it provides a good explanation of why CRA cares about charitable purposes and ALSO charitable activities. For most people the point is obvious. If you are…
On Friday, December 11, 2020 I gave testimony to the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics (ETHI) on the CSSG and We Charity scandal. Here is the video of the testimony. The part dealing with procurements and…
The CRA has revoked its first two registered charities in over a year. Actually, over 13 months not one charity has been revoked. Some think that if the CRA is not revoking any charities that is a good news story. …