CRA Charities Directorate Compliance Division Dashboard
Here is a heavily redacted look at the Charities Directorate Compliance Division Dashboard.
Canadian Charity Law
Charity law in Canada is a mixture of federal and provincial legislation plus common law and trust law. It is important that registered charities understand their compliance requirements. If you wish to understand your charity law obligations you can retain our law firm by contacting us.
Canadian Charity Law top resources:
Annual Resource Alignment Process One-Pager from the Charities Directorate
In the Annual Resource Alignment Process One-Pager – Charities Directorate, CRA’s Charities Directorate is asking for additional funds to do High Net Worth Charity Audits. “This proposal is for an increase in resources for the high net worth audits initiative…
CRA ATIPs provides detailed information on CRA registered charity audits
I recently received a copy of an interesting document from CRA dealing with registered charity audit stats that was released as a result of an access to information request. In this document, the CRA identifies the audit outcomes. It is…
CRA reminder that charities with a March 31 year-end need to file T3010 by end of September
CRA has put out a reminder that charities with a March 31 year-end need to file their T3010 by the end of September. Many charities that receive government funds have a March 31 year-end. It is important the T3010 is…
Canadian charities giving to Indigenous Charities and Qualified Donees – 2019
In our article last year, we discussed Canadian charities giving to Indigenous Charities and Qualified Donees – 2018. Now Sharon Redsky, Wanda Brascoupe, Mark Blumberg and Jessie Lang have reviewed the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return database for 2019 in…
Finance Proposes Changes to Disbursement Quota for Charities and Some Increased Transparency
On August 9th, 2022, the Department of Finance Canada announced that it has published draft legislation (and explanatory notes) to implement Budget 2022 tax measures and amendments for comment. Among the proposed amendments to the Income Tax Act are changes…
Some more documents from CRA on penalties and suspensions of registered charities
Today, we received some more information from CRA on penalties and suspensions including documents for the four following organizations: Fondation quebecoise du sida – 140607490RR0001_Application_Redacted Fondation quebecoise du sida – 140607490RR0001_Gov Docs_Redacted Fondation quebecoise du sida – 140607490RR0001_N.O.R_Redacted Fondation…
New Course: Being a Director of a Canadian Non-Profit or Registered Charity
We just launched a new course titled Being a Director of a Canadian Non-Profit or Registered Charity; the rewards, pitfalls, and obligations of trying to help your community by being a director of an NPO or charity. Here is a…
Blumbergs Canadian Charity Sector Snapshot 2020
Here is the Blumbergs Canadian Charity Sector Snapshot 2020. We recently reviewed the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return database for 2020 as part of the Sean Blumberg Transparency Project. The database covers about 83,991 of the approximately 86,000 registered charities…
When is a financial statement not a financial statement?
We posted on July 12, 2022, the financial statements of many Registered Canadian Amateur Athletic Associations or RCAAAs that were obtained through access to information. Unfortunately, CRA does not post the financial statements of charities or RCAAAs on their website.…
Update on the Disbursement Quota and the Federal Budget 2022
I have been getting some client queries about the disbursement quota and whether it will be passed. Here is my understanding of the current situation: Changes to the disbursement quota were announced/proposed in the April 7, 2022, Federal Budget. These…
Hockey Canada filings with Corporations Canada
If you do a corporate profile report for Hockey Canada at the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) website, you see the following for Hockey Canada. My comments are below the Corporate Profile Report. Federal Corporation Information Federal Corporation…
The New York Times article “76 Fake Charities Shared a Mailbox. The I.R.S. Approved Them All.”
The New York Times recently published an article “76 Fake Charities Shared a Mailbox. The I.R.S. Approved Them All.” It is an important article in that it illustrates some of the tremendous problems in the US charity system. It is…
Calgary Foundation to leave Community Foundations of Canada
I recently read in an article in the Future of Good that the Calgary Foundation will be leaving Community Foundations of Canada. The article Calgary Foundation Splits with Community Foundation Network over position on endowments. In the article journalist Gabe…
How does CRA treat financial support of refugees? Is it included in the income of the refugees in Canada?
Many non-profits and charities have and continue to provide assistance to refugees. This CRA letter may be of interest to those who are supporting refugees in Canada. Is financial support payments provided to resettled refugees included in the recipients’ income…
Listing an Address for Service under ONCA
We are advocates for transparency but privacy is also an important value. Does the public deserve to know the home address of each of your board members? We think probably not. When being asked to list an address for service…
Trudeau, Hockey Canada and the ‘real reckoning’ that probably will not happen
Trudeau is noticing abuse at Hockey Canada all of sudden and he wants to see change. Trudeau said, “We need to see Hockey Canada demonstrating a level of transparency, accountability (and) understanding of the situation they’re faced with, … There…
Registered Canadian Amateur Athletic Associations and their financial statements
We recently obtained a copy of an access to information request which had the financial statements of many of the Registered Canadian Amateur Athletic Associations. We have divided the financial statements that we received and placed them below. If there…
Stats Can “Diversity of charity and non-profit boards of directors: Overview of the Canadian non-profit sector”
In February of 2021, Statistics Canada released the report Diversity of charity and non-profit boards of directors: Overview of the Canadian non-profit sector. It was based on a questionnaire crowdsourced on the internet for responses by non-profits and charities. It…
WE Charity receives penalty from the Charities Directorate of CRA
We noticed that the Charities Listing of CRA notes that WE Charity received a penalty from the Charities Directorate. Here is a link. On the Charities Detail page of the Charities Listing for WE Charity it provides: Penalty: Effective date…
“Right-Wing Charity Offers Tax Breaks to Donors Paying Convoy Leader’s Legal Bills in Criminal Case”
Here is an article entitled “Right-Wing Charity Offers Tax Breaks to Donors Paying Convoy Leader’s Legal Bills in Criminal Case” from Press Progress. It discusses a registered charity called Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom and its defence of convoy organizer Tamara…
CRA charity audit statistics released through freedom of information in 2022
The Charities Directorate of CRA recently released an Access to Information document which discusses audits of registered charities. Here is our article CRA audit statistics released through freedom of information in 2022.
CRA’s NPO Sector Review disclosed through ATIP and there are lots of questions about CRA’s view of terrorism
I found this document entitled NPO Sector Review that had been obtained through access to information. It is from 2015 and deals with CRA‘s review of the NPO sector which includes both nonprofit organizations and registered charities. The document provides…
WE Charity discontinues appeal in Tax Court of Canada
In June 2021 we noted that apparently CRA had proposed a penalty against WE Charity and WE Charity had appealed that penalty in the Tax Court of Canada. Now it appears that WE Charity has withdrawn their appeal in the…