In The Queen's Speech 2014 it notes the introduction of a bill to protect charities. Here is a quote from The Queen's Speech 2014: Draft Protection of Charities Bill The purpose of the draft Bill is to: Create a…
CRA has appealed the decision of David, R. et al. v. The Queen (TCC) to the Federal Court of Appeal. This case involved six separate appeals with respect to the disallowance of a tax credit by CRA for a purported…
On May 29, 2014 the Supreme Court of Canada denied leave to appeal in Neville v. National Foundation for Christian Leadership. It was an application for leave to appeal the decision of the BCCA in January 2014. Here is original…
On October 15, 2014 the Blumbergs Charity Law Institute will be held in Toronto.
The Kathryn Kossow v. Her Majesty The Queen application for leave to appeal was dismissed with costs by the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) on May 15, 2014. The Federal Court of Appeal released its adverse decision against the taxpayers in December 2013.…
Here is a blurb from the ONN May E-bulletin: “Just how many nonprofits?! It's amazing the number of calls and emails we received about this first-ever list of nonprofits in Ontario. What we know: there are 59,605 registered not-for-profit…
I recently requested numbers from CRA on abusive charity gifting tax schemes. The number are trending down. 2006 was the highest at $1.3 billion. 2011 was $299 million. 2012 was $273,000. 2013 preliminary numbers are $100,000 but as we know…
The decision of David, R. et al. v. The Queen (TCC) discusses six separate appeals which concern the disallowance of a tax credit for a purported charitable gift to CanAfrica International Foundation (“CanAfrica”). CanAfrica issued to each of the appellants…
The T3010 now asks additional questions about political activities. So far the CRA 2013 database has about 36,000 charities on it. There are in total approximately 86,000 Canadian registered charities who will file their T3010s. Therefore, less than half of the 2013…
The CRA has updated its “media kit” and specifically the facts and figures section. Here is some of the information from the CRA website: Charities facts and figures The number of registered charities continued to grow in 2013. As of…
The CRA has prepared a new video series entitled “Charities and their participation in political activities”. It has 3 videos which are each about 3 minutes long. There has been a great deal of interest in political activities and charities…
I will be presenting at the Ontario Hospital Association's conference “Strengthening Foundation Governance: Current Issues, Challenges and Solutions” on May 30, 2014 in Toronto. My topic is: “Boards and Resource Development: Tension, Challenges and Opportunities • Why are some board…
Here is an updated version of the Blumbergs Charity Legal Checklist. We hope that you find it a useful tool to help your Canadian registered charity deal with compliance issues. It is a work in progress so please do send in…
In an article entitled “Canada Revenue Agency expands investigations of tax shelters”, Kevin Donovan of the Toronto Star discusses how “As many as 12 charity tax shelter promoters are under criminal investigation for schemes that saw donors contribute millions of…
Many Canadian non-profit corporations don't know about the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (“CNCA”) which came into force in 2011 and requires that all existing Canada Corporations Act (CCA) non-profit corporations must transition to the CNCA by October 17, 2014. Corporations that do not…
In the Holst case the Honourable Justice Judith Woods rejected certain taxpayers alleged donations to a church. She noted: “[9] I accept that Mr. Holst and Ms. Hillier attended church services at Israelite and Celestial and that…
In Johnson v. The Queen the Tax Court of Canada dealt with a case in which Mr. Johnson had made claims in 2002 and 2003 taxation years for donations of $18,550 and $15,500 respectively. Mister Justice Campbell concluded “It is my view that…
The Department of Finance has released the “Notice of Ways and Means Motion to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 11, 2014 and other measures and Explanatory Notes”. Some of the provisions were announced in…
Here is the Blumbergs’ 2013 Receipting Kit. Download Article
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…
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 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…