Register Here. Trump’s recent announcement of freezes of US foreign aid and today’s freezing of Federal funding for programs in the US is very ominous, to say the least. On November 9, 2024, I wrote an article entitled Will the…
Yesterday Caitlin Lee and Mark Blumberg delivered a presentation Finance donation extension proposal and its impact on Canadian charities – what do we know – for participants. Here is the slide deck. Looking forward to hearing further information from CRA…
ONCA came into force in October 2021. Ontario non-profits have had over 3 years to bring their articles and by-laws into compliance. Many Ontario non-profits were slow in making the changes and now there seems to be a backlog at…
An article appeared in the Globe and Mail today by Rudy Mezzetta entitled “Prorogued Parliament complicates extension to charitable donation deadline”. In the article, it notes: The federal government’s proposal to extend the charitable donation deadline to Feb. 28…
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…
Unfortunately, we’re dealing with a postal strike that could last for weeks or longer. For many Canadian charities, they will barely notice the Canada Post strike. However, for other charities, it could have a significant impact in terms of fundraising…
On December 19, 2023 CRA published their Guidance CG-032, Registered charities making grants to non-qualified donees. The new guidance is helpful, but because of the complexity of the wording from the Income Tax Act (Canada) and the lack of case…
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…
The CRA recently sent a response to the Canadian Tax Foundation on the new qualifying disbursement/grant to grantee and directed donations provisions. As many are aware, section 168(1)(f) of the ITA was amended to provide that CRA can revoke a…
Here is an updated Canadian Charity Legal Checklist by Mark Blumberg – July 2023. 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…
We recently received an ATIP disclosure package from CRA relating to Bill S-216, the Effective and Accountable Charities Act. This act was not passed and was replaced by the Federal Budget in 2022. Here is the document we received: All…
Here is our note: Which Canadian charities spent money on foreign activities in 2021 and how much did they spend? Canadian registered charities spent over $3.8 billion on direct foreign activities (not including gifts to qualified donees), and in this note…
Canada has a unique and generous system to help foreign universities fundraise in Canada. Unfortunately, most foreign universities are not aware of this system. Here is our article on Foreign Universities Applying to be Registered Universities outside Canada: What we…
Here is our note: Which Canadian charities spent money on foreign activities in 2020 and how much did they spend? Canadian registered charities spent over $4 billion on direct foreign activities (not including gifts to qualified donees), and in this…
The Charities Directorate of CRA has released draft guidance for “Registered charities making grants to non-qualified donees“. (PDF) The CRA is requesting public feedback on the guidance by January 31, 2023. This guidance relates to the Federal Budget 2022 and…
Here is our article Gifts by Canadian Charities to the Registered Foreign Universities in 2019. In this article, we will look at funding of registered foreign universities that are qualified donees by Canadian registered charities. We recently reviewed the T3010…
The Department of Finance has released the Notice of Ways and Means Motion to introduce an Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on April 7, 2022, and other measures. Here is a PDF. It is…
Let’s start with the most obvious. Canadian individuals and corporations can donate to numerous Canadian registered charities that are dealing with the situation in Ukraine and neighbouring countries. Here are examples of some of the groups: Canadian Red Cross Society…
CRA recently provided a redacted letter on “Whether an individual may claim a non-refundable tax credit on their final return for a gift by will, to a U.S. organization.” The letter has a good summary of how donations by Canadian…
I recently ran across a very good article entitled: “Going the Extra Mile: The Liability of Foreignness in U.S. Foundation International Grantmaking to Local NGOs”. It was written by three US professors namely Carrie R. Oelberger, Jesse Lecy, and Simon…
An interesting report from the OECD on charities in many different countries recently was published. It was given a really exciting title namely “Taxation and Philanthropy” so you might have missed it at the checkout at your local grocery store. …
CRA released today the updated guidance CG-002, Canadian registered charities carrying on activities outside Canada. Essentially, this guidance deals with Canadian charities conducting foreign activities. About 5000 Canadian registered charities conduct foreign activities every year. Over the next 10 years…
Our firm has been using online tools for over 10 years – primarily webinars. In 2018, we moved to providing paid online courses dealing with charity and non-profit legal compliance and risk management to the non-profit and charity sector as…
A lot has happened since we originally published this article on September 4th so here is an updated version below. The WE Charity scandal has now been going on for over 3 months. It has caused the Minister…