The list of municipal or public bodies performing a function of government in Canada registered as qualified donees has grown to 462. It is predominantly indigenous bands but also has some other groups such as school boards. Here is the…
Journalism has been under a lot of stress for many years. The Trudeau government has proposed a number of complicated and convoluted initiatives to ostensibly support journalism. One of them was to have a qualified donees category of “registered journalism…
Canadian registered charities now have more options when it comes to filing their T3010 for 2019. The form can be filed electronically through the CHAMP system (since June 1, 2019) or a registered charity can still file using the paper…
We recently put online CRA letters to registered charities that had been revoked over the last few years as a result of audit. It was interesting to see a number of charities that were revoked just because of being dormant. …
Statistics Canada reported, “While fewer Canadian tax filers made charitable donations in 2018, they were more generous than in 2017.” They noted that “Total donations claimed on tax returns rose 3.9% in 2018 to just under $10.0 billion. While this…
I recently looked at a couple of ATIP documents from the Charities Directorate and I was quite surprised at the decline in the number of charity applications that CRA is accepting. These statistics go back to 2000. What we see…
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…
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…
CRA has said that they will no longer accept the RC59 Business Consent for Offline Access and now as of today one will need to use the new Form AUT-01 Authorize a Representative for Access by Phone and Mail. The…
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…
Here is our article “Some initial issues for a new Canadian grantmaking foundation“. Hopefully, it will provide some ideas as to issues that new (and perhaps existing) foundations should be considering. Also, here is our more comprehensive Canadian Charity Legal…
Mark Blumberg will be speaking on top compliance issues and transparency with investments at the 17th Annual Foundation, Endowment and Not for Profit Investment Summit (January 22-23, 2020) 4:25 PM (January 22) Navigating the Top Compliance Issues Facing Canadian Foundations…
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…
If a University is outside of Canada and on a special list maintained by CRA then that foreign university can issue Canadian “official donation receipts” under the Income Tax Act or tax receipts which are very valuable to Canadian taxpayers. …
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…
Here is our article Corporations Canada Launches Changes to Fees and Service Standard Times and New Express Services Today. There is some very exciting news in that article.
On December 31, 2019 the Ontario government apparently updated their webpage on ONCA. I know this because the page says “Updated: December 31, 2019”. What is the change? Hard to tell. It might be “The launch date is now expected…
The CRA on December 20, 2019, put out a press release on their incentives relating to journalism. As well CRA has released the T625 Application for Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization Designation form both as a regular PDF and a fillable…
The Washington Post recently had an article entitled “Mormon Church has misled members on $100 billion tax-exempt investment fund, whistleblower alleges” The Washington Post article notes: A former investment manager alleges in a whistleblower complaint to the Internal Revenue Service…
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…
A recent Federal Court of Appeal case Church of Atheism of Central Canada v. Canada (National Revenue) deals with a group promoting atheism who applied for registered charity status, CRA rejected the application, the group appealed to the FCA and…
There is a list called “foreign charities that have received a gift from Her Majesty in right of Canada”. As the name suggests a group that gets a “gift” from the Federal government can apply to CRA to be on…
I know the title sounds a little harsh but I recently checked a list that the CRA maintains of municipalities that are “qualified donees” or groups that are able to issue official donation receipts and yes CRA has “terminated” some municipalities like…
There are a couple of important qualified donee categories that have increased in size – first the “List of municipal or public bodies performing a function of government in Canada registered as qualified donees” which is largely aboriginal bands and…