Here is an interesting case in which a municipality, that was allegedly involved in a charity scheme, wanted leave to intervene in a Tax Court of Canada matter involving a donor who had made a donation to the municipality. The…
Here are some interesting numbers from the Charities Directorate. 4,456 applications and 2060 of them are registered/reregistered. Most applications are either returned for incomplete information, denied, withdrawn or abandoned. It just reiterates the importance of carefully preparing any charity application…
The Charities Directorate just posted an important message which provides an update on the Charities Directorate activities. There is discussion of technology, guidances, CNCA, compliance activities but most importantly extensive discussion of political activities. Here is a link to the…
In the case of Ofori-Darko the CRA disallowed a claim of about $30,000 over 3 years. The people who allegedly made the donation appealed to the Tax Court of Canada and the TCC dismissed the appeal on the basis that…
The Charity Commission of England and Wales notes that “There is genuine and desperate need for humanitarian assistance to help people affected by the conflict in Syria. UK charities and their partners are playing an important role in the delivery…
The CRA has just released its Non-Profit Organization Risk Identification Project Report. The relatively short report makes for interesting reading. It deals with the 80,000 or so non-profits that are not registered charities. This will have an impact on groups…
The CRA has reminded Canadian registered charities and registered Canadian amateur athletic associations that are incorporated under the Canada Corporations Act that the have till October 17, 2014 to continue to the new CNCA or face possible revocation of charity…
Today Finance Minister Jim Flaherty introduced the Canadian Federal Budget 2014. The budget had a large number of provisions dealing with non-profits and charities. Here are some excerpts from the Federal Budget in one PDF document. Overall I was…
Today Finance Minister Jim Flaherty introduced the Canadian Federal Budget 2014. The budget had a large number of provisions dealing with non-profits and charities. Here are some excerpts from the Federal Budget in one PDF document. Overall I was…
We recently reviewed the T3010 information for 2012 to see how many charities identify themselves as doing work that relates to the environment. When we reviewed the T3010 about 1150 registered charities identify themselves as carrying on some work in…
About 19,000 Canadian charities have filed their 2013 T3010s so far. Of those charities some note that they are doing political activities. Here are the descriptions of the political activities described by those charities.
In a Globe and Mail article entitled “Budget will include measures to expose links between charities and crime, Flaherty says” there is a discussion of potential items affecting charities in the 2014 Federal Budget set to be delivered on February…
Last night I was interviewed by Evan Solomon on CBC Power and Politics discussing Canadian charities and political activities. Other guests included Marlo Raynolds (former Executive Director of the Pembina Institute) and John Bennett of Sierra Club Canada. Here is…
Mr. Berg made a ‘donation’ to a registered charity, Cheder Chabad, and the registration of that charity has subsequently been revoked. The Allen Berg case is important because it discusses “donative intent” and the Friedberg decision. It upholds Marechaux and…
Last year the Federal Court of Appeal in Cheder Chabad v. The Queen, ordered CRA to delay the publication of a notice of intention to revoke the charitable status of the registered charity by four months. It appears that CRA…
If you search the CRA Charities Listing under revoked for cause charities it provides a list of Canadian charities that have been revoked for cause. I noticed recently that Assemblée de Dieu de Montreal-Nord has had its charity status revoked…
The BC Supreme Court recently dealt with a case involving TLC The Land Conservancy of British Columbia Inc. and whether certain assets may be used to satisfy creditors. TLC is having financial problems and trying to restructure under the Companies’…
CRA recently released a letter which discussed whether an Indian Band is a public body performing a function of government within the meaning of 149(1)(c) and therefore exempt from income tax on the interest income received from a GIC. The…
CRA recently released a letter which discussed whether scholarship funds received by an employee are taxable as employment income under subsections 5(1) or 6(1) of the Income Tax Act. CRA examined a situation where a registered charity (the “Foundation”) received…
On January 10, 2014 David Ajise, a former tax preparer operating in Toronto, was sentenced to a 30 month jail term for fraud over $5,000. Ajise is the former proprietor of Datronix Solutions, a tax preparation service. A CRA investigation…
CRA released a letter which discusses whether a member of a not-for-profit corporation without share capital is a “shareholder” within the meaning of that term in subsection 248(1) for purposes of subsection 15(1) of the Income Tax Act. CRA’s view…
The Globe and Mail recently had an article which discusses the concept of perpetual endowments as well as the use of donor advised funds and bequests. Read article > Here is also another article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy dealing with…
Probably not. Otherwise that would be about 5-10 times more funds than all Canadian registered charities spent on political activities in 2012. In fact, when we reviewed who spent the most on political activities it appears to me that the…
The problem of “abusive charity gifting tax schemes” continues. These are schemes that promise that if you put in say $1000 through a complicated scheme you will end up with a $5000 receipt and therefore you can save $2500 in…