With changes in May 2019 in which CRA removed about 10 years of public information from the Charities Listing, the differences between the CRA’s Charities Listing and the Blumbergs’ CharityData.ca portal have grown. This article will try to show you…
Today the Federal government released two documents. One was entitled Government provides further flexibility for employers to access the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and the other Additional Details on the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy. Essentially the Federal government is making some…
Blumbergs will soon be releasing a large number of FAQ pages on our website specifically for common questions and issues affecting Canadian registered charities and non-profit corporations during the COVID-19 crisis. In the meantime, here are some of the FAQs…
Finance today, April 1, 2020, released further information on wage subsidies for business, non-profits and charities. The wage subsidy is about $71 billion in total so it is quite important and we are now getting a better idea of what…
The CBC recently reported “Some Toronto-area mosques remain open despite dire warnings about COVID-19“. This might be a problem for a number of different religious groups. It is important for charities from a charity regulation point of view to have…
Here is an updated Canadian Charity Legal Checklist by Mark Blumberg. 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 that we do for…
Blumbergs is pleased to announce that we will be hosting Blumbergs’ Canadian Charity Law Boot Camp again on Monday, April 20, 2020. An easy enough date to remember! This is a one-day boot camp on compliance and standards issues for…
CRA recently updated their page dealing with Penalties and suspensions. The big changes appear to be a whole section on penalties and suspension for registered journalism organizations – of which there are none currently! Also, they updated the language relating…
On January 27, 2020, the Honourable Justice Ronald MacPhee of the Tax Court of Canada (TCC) rejected an appeal from Alexandru Tudora dealing with the Global Learning Gifting Initiative Program. I must admit I was not really paying attention as…
The Federal Court of Appeal on December 5, 2019 dismissed the appeal in Markou V. Canada relating to the ‘abusive charity gifting tax scheme’ “Donation Program for Medical Science and Technology”. The Tax Court of Canada had followed the precedent…
Here is a recent bulletin from CRA dealing with the problem of fraudulent official donation receipts. Canada Revenue Agency Feb 07, 2020, 16:33 ET TORONTO, Feb. 7, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ – The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced that George…
The Canadian Lawyer has an article Class action certified for “sham” charitable donation tax scheme. It discusses the class action lawsuit against a number of defendants dealing with the “Global Learning Gifting Initiative Charitable Donation Program” and how that class…
We all see from the media the terrible wildfires in Australia. Some Canadian donors or charities have wanted to assist with the relief and recovery efforts as well as research and prevention. Here are a few thoughts specific to the…
The Wall Street Journal on January 8, 2020 in an opinion piece entitled “The War on Philanthropy: Private giving achieves what government can’t—which is why authoritarians hate it” basically provides an unabashed defence of philanthropy and response to those who…
Here are the CRA letters from a number of recent Canadian registered charity revocations. These letters from CRA cover many different grounds for de-registration. Some relate to relatively minor matters such as an organization being inactive for many years, to…
Donor Advised Funds are registered charities in Canada that allow a donor to donate to the charity but the donor retains the ability to recommend which registered charities or qualified donees will receive the funds. Donor Advised Funds or DAFs…
It is now the giving season. We will hear lots from charities on Giving Tuesday and perhaps you will be inundated with too many emails on Giving Tuesday from charities that you rarely hear from! The media will be full…
There was a recent Tax Court of Canada (“TCC”) case Miller v. The Queen, 2019 TCC 204. It is not an important or exciting case – it deals with a charity tax scheme. A person buys some multimedia courseware for $7000…
We have created two new online courses for those outside of Toronto who are not able to easily attend our programs. They might also be helpful to those in Toronto who cannot wait for our next session as they sometimes only…
CRA has recently updated its Charities Listing and the most notable change is the fact that they have reduced the amount of information available on each Canadian registered charity. The Charities Listing used to have up to 15 years of data…
Properly issuing official donation receipts has been challenging for many registered charities. According to the CRA, 89% of registered charities that are audited by CRA are not correctly issuing official donation receipts. Issuing incorrect receipts can result in revocation or…
Every year Canadian registered charities must file the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return with the Charities Directorate of CRA. In June 2019 Canadian registered charities will be able to file the T3010 online which will make the process easier and…
Here is our new Canadian Charity Legal Checklist. For those who are interested in reviewing legal compliance for their registered charity, they may find the checklist helpful. If you require legal assistance and wish to retain our law firm then please…
I will be speaking at the CFA Society of Toronto 2019 Wealth Conference on May 1, 2019 dealing with the topic ”Professional Advisors and Philanthropy: Helping clients and yourself navigate philanthropy”. You can register for the program here. Here is the…