I am still surprised at the number of Canadian fundraisers that I meet who have not read the CRA's Fundraising Guidance or have read it but don't remember any of the details! Here is the Fundraising Guidance on the CRA…
Here is the standard CRA response letter re Complaint About a Particular Canadian Registered Charity.
CRA has confirmed that the value of receipts issued by a few charities that were part of 'abusive charity gifting tax shelters' was over $7 Billion dollars and resulted in the reassessment by CRA of over 208,000 taxpayer returns. The height…
Here is my recent webinar Top Charity Compliance Issues for Canadian Registered Charity with Mark Blumberg. It was wonderful to have over 3000 people registered for the webinar and thank you CharityVillage for hosting. You can see the presentation, the slide…
Here is our article CRA letter on Ineligible Individual and Impact on Charity Application which provides a copy of a standard letter when CRA determines that an ineligible individual may be involved with a charity application.
The case of Markou v. The Queen, 2018 TCC 66 (CanLII) in the Tax Court of Canada dealt with a leveraged donation program called “Donation Program for Medical Science and Technology”- what CRA used to refer to as an “abusive charity…
Here is an article I recently wrote entitled Top Canadian Charity Law Issues for Charity Village. It highlights some of the top compliance issues that a Canadian charity should be concerned with.
There are over 2.5m pages on the Government of Canada's website and only a few thousand deal with registered charities. Here are some tips on finding information on registered charities. However, keep in mind that information and legal advice are…
Understanding legal compliance for registered charities is not easy but Blumbergs is offering exciting new upcoming events in 2018 that will help. Fundamentals of the T3010 and Transparency for Canadian charities On Friday June 1, 2018, Blumbergs’ will be holding a…
Here is the CRA spokespersons talking points for the Release of the Consultation Panel Report on the public consultations on charities and political activity. For more information on charities and political activities you can see our directory on Canadian charities and…
Here is a recent CRA presentation on political activities by Canadian registered charities that has some good examples of allowable and prohibited political activities. It was obtained through ATIP. Some have complained that the examples in CRA's political activities guidance are dated.…
Barry Bussey published an op ed in The Province on the Canada Summer Jobs program and the reluctance of the CRA Minister to release it guidance on religion which has essentially been complete for a number of years. Bussey is…
In the past US and other charities had mainly looked to establishing a Canadian counterpart non-profit or registered charity when they thought that either there were fundraising opportunities in Canada or they wish to conduct their own charitable activities in Canada. …
The Tax Court of Canada in Isah, A. v. The Queen (TCC) deals with donations disallowed by CRA and the court ultimately decided to impose gross negligence penalties on the taxpayer who submitted fake official donation receipts. The Court discuss the test…
The Department of Finance is reviewing Canada's anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regime. They have published a consultation paper at Reviewing Canada's Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Regime. They are looking for submissions on the discussion paper before April 30, 2018. I have…
Here is CRA's List of Areas of Non-Compliance with Income Tax Provisions – Canadian Public Foundations.
Here is the CRA's List of Areas of Non-Compliance with Income Tax Provisions – Canadian Private Foundations.
Here is the CRA's List of Areas of Non-Compliance with Income Tax Provisions – Canadian Charitable Organizations.
Over the last 10 or more years, we have published over 2500 blog posts. Except for a few avid readers, that might be a little overwhelming so we have started to create a directory of some of the top resources…
Here is an updated article on the difference between a conduit and a structured arrangement – it is entitled Canadian Charities and Foreign Activities: Conduit versus Structured Arrangement. .
Here is our note “Common Paragraphs for an Administrative Fairness Letter from the Charities Directorate of CRA“. It contains explanations of common concerns that CRA may find during an audit that, unless appropriately addressed, may result in various penalties, sanctions or…
In a presentation to E&Y Gary Huenemoeder of the Charities Directorate provided certain updated audit statistics for 2016-2017 which shows the outcomes of the CRA's completed audits. Audit statistics(2016-2017) •Audits completed –652 Results: •Clean audits –38 •Education letters issued –387…
In this article “Top 68 CRA Reasons for Denying your Canadian Registered Charity Application” we have obtained from CRA a list of some of the most common and not so common reasons for CRA to be concerned with a charity…
CRA has just released the 2018 T3010 Registered Charity Information Return. The T3010 is a form that Canadian registered charities need to file each year within six months of their fiscal year-end. Failure to file the return can quickly result in…