According to Canadian Press “The federal revenue agency can now hand the police possible evidence of serious crime — including terrorist activity — that it happens to come across while reviewing taxpayer files. The Canada Revenue Agency gained the little-noticed new authority,…
The Globe and Mail had an article by Konrad Yakabuski questioning the degree of transparency about sources of funding with Canadian registered charities that are “think tanks” Here is the Globe and Mail article “Think tanks need to show us the money“.…
Here is an updated version of the Canadian Charity Legal Checklist. For those who are interested in reviewing legal compliance for their registered charity they may find the checklist helpful.
CRA recently released a letter discussing various scenarios where an NPO will lose its exemption under par. 149(1)(l) during its wind-up operations. Here is a copy of the full CRA letter.
CRA recently released a letter which discusses whether a Community Contribution Company (“C3”) incorporated in the province of British Columbia that elects not to distribute any of its profits to its shareholders, but donates all of the profits to a…
The CRA has recently proposed annulment of the registration of Dying with Dignity Canada (DWD), a Canadian registered charity. In terms of full disclosure I am a legal counsel to DWD. Here is a note from DWD and…
Here is a copy of the slides of a presentation made by Cathy Hawara, Director General of the Charities Directorate of CRA, to the PFC conference in October 2014. It covers some interesting material.
Here is the Blumbergs' List of Canada Corporations Act non-profits that need to continue to the CNCA. The federal government as part of its Open Data initiative provides a complete list of Federal corporations (for-profit and non-profit) in XML format. We…
On July 1, 2014 Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) will come into force. Here is a brief article describing some of the key points of CASL and how it will impact Canadian charities. View Article
We have just released the Blumbergs’ Snapshot of the Canadian Charity Sector 2012. The Canadian charity sector has grown again. The Canadian charity sector is a vital part of Canadian society and economy with revenue of over $223 billion and expenditures of…
Here is a link to a short article on “Selecting Great Charities – only tough if your eyes are open” which recently appeared on the CanadaHelps website. View Article
We recently reviewed the T3010 information for 2012. The database was prepared by the Charities Directorate of CRA in June 2014 and covers about 85,477 charities which is almost all of the 2012 T3010 returns. Canadian registered charities were required…
If you are interested in the size and scope of the British Columbia registered charity sector then the Blumbergs’ Snapshot of the BC Charity Sector 2012 will be helpful. View Article
Blumbergs has provided a submission to the Finance Committee (FINA) as part of the 2015 pre-budget consultation. It deals with non-profit transparency and accountability. View Article
For many Ontario non-profit corporations under the Ontario Corporations Act (OCA) who don’t want to wait for the ONCA, which may or may not come into force in 2016, or want to carry out governance changes now, a continuance from…
CRA has posted the T3010 Registered Charity Information Returns for 82,000 of the 86,000 Canadian registered charities. About 477 Canadian registered charities identified conducting political activities whether by volunteer, staff or spending funds. Download Article
It seems that about every year there is a new T3010 form. CRA has released the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return for returns for fiscal year ends after Jan 1, 2015. Here is the slightly revised T3010 (15e) Registered Charity Information Return…
The CRA Corporate Business Plan discusses CRA plans. It provides some interesting information on the Charities Directorate. Here are some of the highlights: The Charities Directorate has a budget of about $29,154,434. It has about 333 Full Time Equivalent positions. Here…
Imagine Canada has obtained an interesting sessional paper from the Canada Revenue Agency. The questions responded to were provided by MP Hedy Fry. The paper provides some insight into CRA activity relating to charities and political activities. Here is a…
The case of Dominion Nickel Investments Ltd v. The Queen, 2015 TCC 14 (CanLII) deals with a motion on CRA disclosure and the extent to which CRA is allowed to redact certain information when it discloses the information as part of a…
On February 11, 2015, I will be delivering a webinar for the Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN) entitled “Advocacy and Political Activities: Busting myths and misconceptions!” Here is the information on the webinar: Webinar Wednesdays: Advocacy and Political Activities: Busting myths…
I received an email from Marni Soupcoff of the Canadian Constitution Foundation. She discusses the narrative that supposedly no “right-leaning” groups are being audited for political activities. I thought I would share it. Dear Mr. Blumberg, On January 20, news broke…
The Canadian Charity Law Association is delivering some upcoming webinars. More information on each of these webinars and how to register is provided below: March 4th at 12:00 pm EDT: “Groundbreaking Report: Time, Treasure and Talent: Canadian Women and Philanthropy”…
Non-profits and charities should be aware of their potential obligations under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (the “AODA”). The AODA was introduced in 2005 to establish accessibility requirements and standards for employers and providers of goods and…