Here is a copy of a draft paper delivered by Terry de March, Director General of the Charities Directorate, at a conference in Australia. At some point in the future, CRA may have a consultation on this topic and the…
In the recent Federal Court of Appeal case Universal Aide Society v Minister of National Revenue, 2009 FCA 107 (F.C.A. Apr 02, 2009), the court denied an injunction by the charity to prevent the CRA from publishing a Notice of…
CRA has been busy updating their website. If you are interested in rules and regulations for Canadian charities and have not visited the CRA website recently then I encourage you to do so. Here are some new and recently revised…
The CRA has just published a very helpful page entitled “Checklist for Charities on Avoiding Terrorist Abuse”. For those interested in reducing the likelihood that someone will abuse the resources and reputation of your charity you may wish to…
I recently read a little book entitled Building Capacity Through Financial Management: A Practical Guide by John Cammack. It is published by Oxfam. The book is very inexpensive (around $15) and you can get the book for free at …
Every Canadian registered charity has to file a T3010 information return each year. The return must be filed no later than six months after the end of the charity’s fiscal period. For example, if your charity’s fiscal period end is…
CRA has added a disclaimer at the top of its T3010 Registered Charity Information Return information on their website: “The information displayed below has been manually entered by the CRA from the registered charity’s Registered Charity Information Return. This information…
Canadian charities whose fiscal year end is in 2009 need to file the T3010B within 6 months of the 2009 fiscal year end. The T3010B is a mixed accounting and legal form that requires more information than the previous T3010A.…
The Honourable Jean-Pierre Blackburn announces an investment of $3.1 million to assist small and rural charities understand their legal and compliance requirements Charities and Partnership Outreach Program The Honourable Jean-Pierre Blackburn announces an investment of $3.1 million to assist small…
With the difficult economic times and many charities and foundations feeling the pinch CRA has probably received many more inquiries about disbursement quota issues. This brief policy will clarify some of the concerns and explains when CRA may grant some…
My article was reprinted in the Canadian Fundraising & Philanthropy eNEWS. Of course they cleaned up the grammar and logic! OPINION – Mark Blumberg Canwest nonprofit coverage sensationalist, inaccurate In this article, I look at and criticize a sensationalist…
I recently read “An Analysis of Canadian Philanthropic Support for International Development and Relief” which was prepared in 2002 by the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy (now Imagine Canada). The report was paid for by the Aga Khan Foundation and has…
The Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) recently dealt with a case called The Millennium Charitable Foundation (The Millennium Charitable Foundation vs. MNR 2008 FCA 414). In The Millennium Charitable Foundation case the law firm of Miller Thomson LLP, which represented…
I am a lawyer and not an accountant. Like most lawyers numbers scare me. After all if we could deal with blood and we would be doctors and if we could add and subtract we would probably want to be…
The Canadian Bar Association and Ontario Bar Association Charity and Not-for-Profit Law Sections and the Continuing Legal Education Committee are presenting the 2009 National Charity Law Symposium. You can come and hear me speak about what’s new with foreign activities…
CRA just put out a easy to read and understand list of “Factors that will prevent an organization from being registered as a charity”. Perhaps CRA put out this list because with 4000 new organizations putting in applications every year…
The Canadian parliament is once again considering passing the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act. If it is passed it will affect 19,000 Canadian federal corporations that are incorporated under federal law. The Bill is currently in the Industry, Science and Technology…
For those interested in celebrating National Avoid a Charity Scam Day you might find this interesting.
Here is some statistical information on Charity Scams – Costing Us All A Lot. Just to give some perspective far more funds flow to charity tax avoidance schemes in Canada than to all the money spent by Canadian charities on…
If you are interested in assisting reduce or eliminate extreme poverty and you want more than writing a cheque to fix a symptom of a problem then you might find this note interesting. Various groups have highlighted the importance of…
There are over 83,500 Canadian registered charities. If you want to find out about a registered charity the first place to look is the CRA’s website to see if they are registered and their T3010 Registered Charity Information Return at…
The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) has recently prepared a report entitled “Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best: Benchmarks to Assess and Enhance Grantmaker Impact”. The report is geared towards US foundations but is equally relevant to Canadian foundations. …
The OECD Report on Abuse of Charities for Money Laundering and Tax Evasion is well worth reading for anyone who cares about the Canadian charitable sector. On my quick read of the report it seems that Canada has probably more…
The Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency has revised their form T3010A with a new form called the T3010B, and it is supposed to be used by Canadian charities for fiscal years ending in 2009. Update February 22, 2009…