The CRA has released recently the 2019 version C of its T3010 Registered Charity Information Return. The major changes deal with replacing political activities with “public policy dialogue and development activities” (PPDDAs). As a result of Finance’s 2018 changes CRA no…
Since February 2019 there has not been any update from the Ontario government about ONCA coming into force. As we have noted before the Ontario government is no longer referring to ONCA coming into force in early 2020. A few months…
I was recently on a VITREO podcast entitled Episode 31: The Impact of the Community Foundation – How They Have Become Power Players in Philanthropy and What it Means for the Sector. It dealt with community foundations, donor-advised funds and perpetual…
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 recently launched another online course entitled “Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) In Canada: Understanding this important and often misunderstood philanthropic vehicle? It is 1.5 hours long and covers a number of topics relating to donor-advised funds or DAFs.
Press Progress has written an article entitled Right-Wing Media Outlet Accredited For Leaders’ Debate is Also Registered as a Charity for Immigrants. It is worth reading. It is nice to see more media outlets using the T3010 information and also www.CharityData.ca as well…
CRA is now sending out reminders to registered charities to file their T3010s on time. These reminders are going out roughly 3 months before the charity’s T3010 due date. Here is a redacted copy of the notice. These reminders are…
We are pleased to launch our Blumbergs Canadian Charity Sector Snapshot 2017 with information on the Canadian registered charity sector for 2017. 2017 is the last year that there is currently full data available.
Here are some documents relating to social finance, social investments and social enterprise that have been requested by various people through the Canadian access to information system from the Canadian Federal Government. These documents are probably of interest to some…
There is an interesting letter from CRA dealing with “Whether an employer's contribution to an employee's crowdfunding campaign raising funds to help with additional costs for caring for their child, who was born with XXXXXXXXXX, is a taxable benefit.” The…
I have been asking the Ontario government for months for an update on whether ONCA is coming into force and when. On September 25, 2019 I received a short note from the Policy and Business Law Unit of the Ministry of Government…
Join us on Monday October 7, 2019 in Toronto for the 8th Annual Blumbergs' Canadian Charity Law Institute. We will be featuring a number of speakers covering different legal and compliance issues affecting Canadian charities and non-profits. It will be a full…
CRA is encouraging non-profits that want to apply to become registered charities to use their new CHAMP system for the application process. They recently made an announcement that they will still however accept paper applications using the old Form T2050…
We have just launched our 3rd online course – this one is entitled “Fundraising from Canada: A course for groups outside of Canada“. It is geared towards those outside of Canada thinking about fundraising in Canada and the options for…
Many people in Ontario are wondering what the status of ONCA is. I just wrote this email to MGCS and look forward to hearing more and sharing it with the sector. Here is my note to MGCS: Dear MGCS, I would…
Elections Canada in late August 2019 updated their guide Political Financing Handbook for Third Parties Financial Agents and Auditors, which updates the last version of the guide which was published in June 2019. One of the changes was in their chart of…
The Tyee, an online magazine, recently posted an opinion piece by Tom McMahon entitled “Why Environmental Groups’ Attack on Elections Canada Is Wrong, and Dangerous“. It is a very thoughtful piece from an individual who has a good understanding of electoral regulation. …
CANADALAND recently had a podcast which dealt with a number of topics but one of them was charities, political activities, Elections Canada and the upcoming Federal election. The podcast was called “#227 Scandal? What Scandal?”. In the podcast Jesse Brown is joined by Sandy…
Private and Public Foundations are an important part of the Canadian charity sector. The Blumbergs' Fundamentals of Running a Private or Public Foundation in Canada will focus on compliance issues with an emphasis on those specifically relevant to running a private or…
STEP Canada had a CRA Roundtable on June 6-7, 2019 and they discussed a number of topics. One issue of interest to charities and philanthropists is Question 2 dealing with alter ego trusts and donations. Essentially CRA takes the position…
There has been a lot of media and social media coverage over the last few days about non-profits and charities and the rules around their involvement in the upcoming election. To my dismay, much of it has been inaccurate. While…
CRA in June 2019 brought in a new charity application system under their CHAMP modernization program. Here is our article Making sense of CRAs new online Canadian charity application system which discusses the new system and also provides a paper copy…
The Journalism and Written Media Independent Panel of Experts released a report that they had provided to the Federal government relating to the 2019 federal budget and the proposals on journalism. Here is a copy of the report. As well…
On June 24, 2019, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld CRA's decision to revoke Many Mansions Spiritual Centre, Inc. (“Many Mansions”)'s charitable status in Many Mansions Spiritual Centre, Inc. v Canada (National Revenue). CRA listed many reasons for revocation, including…