We have seen many issues raised about the extension of 2024 donations to February 28, 2025. For simplicity, we will call January 2025 and February 2025 the “extension period”. We have written about our concerns with this proposal in our…
The CRA has recently begun collecting information on donor advised funds (DAFs) in Canada. We have blogged about it here. These are the questions that have been added: Line 5860 – Did the charity hold any donor advised funds (DAF)…
The Charities Directorate of CRA is encouraging Canadian registered charities to “Take action during Charity Fraud Awareness Week”. This is a UK initiative, but the CRA works with other charity regulators as part of the International Charity Regulators group. CRA…
Tens of thousands of Ontario non-profit corporations that were originally incorporated under Part III of the Corporations Act (Ontario), had a 3-year transition period during which to bring their constating documents (i.e. letters patent, by-laws, etc.) into conformity with the…
There is an interesting class action lawsuit in the US against a large church. It involves a number of different matters, including claims questioning the promises made by the church that they provided 15% of their funds for overseas work. …
Some charities and non-profits think that they are exempt from the requirements of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (“CASL”). While there are some exemptions for registered charities, generally CASL does apply to charities and non-profits, and such organizations should be aware of…
Here is the Blumbergs’ Pre-Budget Submission for the 2025 Canadian Federal Budget. For those who have been following our law firm’s submissions over the last ten or more years, they have focused on transparency and accountability in the non-profit and charity sector.Pre-Budget…
Here is a new course that Blumbergs will be delivering on Sponsorship vs Donations for Canadian businesses and registered charities. There is an early bird special for a limited time available below. Sponsorship vs Donations for Canadian businesses and…
According to the T3010 data, over 3 million Canadians work full-time and over 3 million work part-time for Canadian registered charities. It is not clear if these numbers are accurate but what is clear is that charities have lots of…
The government of Canada announced today that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is now a listed terrorist entity under Canadian law. Previously, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force had been listed as of 2012. Here is information…
We just recently received from CRA some 2023 T3010 returns, and about 173 organizations had completed the T3010’s Schedule 8, which deals with disbursement quota (or DQ). It is interesting that about 31 groups completed the form, even though…
Here is an updated Canadian Charity Legal Checklist by Mark Blumberg – May 2024. It is a checklist for Canadian registered charities to assist them with managing compliance issues. We use it as part of our informal risk reviews for registered charities.…
Today, the Federal Liberal Government proposed Bill C-70 An Act respecting countering foreign interference. Here is the text of Bill C-70 In the summary of the Bill, it states that the Bill in: “Part 4 enacts the Foreign Influence Transparency…
In October 2023, we wrote a blog entitled “Ontario Government proposing to remove requirement for charities to notify the OPGT when established”. It discussed the Ontario government’s proposal to eliminate certain unnecessary and duplicative reporting to the Ontario Public Guardian and…
In a recent article Global News notes: Incoming legislation that requires provincial approval of direct agreements with the federal government has universities in Alberta exploring potential impacts. The Provincial Priorities Act, tabled Wednesday, prevents any direct agreements between the federal…
Here is some information on the upcoming presentation “Due Diligence on Registered Charities in Canada“. Here is some information on the presentation: As many philanthropists have found giving money away can be pleasurable or painful. It is often more difficult…
I was recently asked what are some ideas about improving public trust in Canada. Isn’t public trust high in Canada for registered charities? Unfortunately, the answer is no, and the consequences are significant, but that is a blog for another…
It is nice to see that Gabe Oatley of the Future of Good is looking at the topic of the proposed changes to the Alternative Minimum Tax and how that affects both donations and the amounts that some very wealthy…
CRA has recently released new CRA Guidance on qualifying disbursements but specifically focussed on grants to grantees. This article “New CRA Guidance on Grants to Grantees – some preliminary comments” is an initial and preliminary note on the CRA Guidance.…
CRA advised on November 9, 2023, that there will be a new T3010 form for those filing on or after December 31, 2023. The form will be called T3010 version 24. Here is our blog. On December 14, 2023, we…
The CRA has released an updated or “finalized” version of Guidance CG-032, Registered charities making grants to non-qualified donees (PDF)) today. As with all CRA guidance, it is subject to review and changes. We will be writing about and presenting…
Did you know that Canadian charities spent in 2021 about $177 billion on salaries and other compensation expenditures, according to our Blumbergs Canadian Charity Sector Snapshot 2021? With millions of people working for the charity sector, it cannot be understated…
It was nice to see a clarification from CRA today on an issue that garnered far too much attention in the charity sector, namely the issue of filing T3 Trust Income Tax and Information Returns for internal trusts. CRA clarified…
If your Canadian registered charity has a December 31, 2023 year-end or later, you will need to use the new form of T3010 (called version 24). For those who use the CRA MyBA, you don’t have to worry about that,…