Ethics and Canadian Charities

It is not good enough the Canadian charities just follow the law but there are important ethical considerations as well as standards that Canadian nonprofits and charities need to be aware of.

UK government to bring in more protections for charities

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…

David, R. et al. v. the Queen (TCC) – CRA files appeal

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…

Blurb from Ontario Non-profit Network (ONN)

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…

Latest statistics on “abusive charity gifting tax schemes”

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…

Quirky case on “false receipting” deserves an appeal

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…

CRA launches new video series on charities and political activities

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…

Blumbergs’ Charity Legal Checklist

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…

Toronto Star covers CRA criminal investigation of charity tax shelters

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…