Some Ontario corporations have provisions in their by-laws that allow for virtual meetings. This is particularly important during COVID. However, some have provisions that prohibit virtual meetings. The Ontario government has emergency provisions that allowed for virtual meetings for…
The JCCF was in the news a few months ago and at the time we requested certain documents from CRA on the organization. The public is allowed to request documents from CRA dealing with charities. Here are the redacted documents…
Here is a CRA’s letter 2019-0825751E5 Whether a NPO has a profit purpose — Section 149(1)(l) (1) dealing with Non-profit organizations and business activities, reserves and dealing with non-members. There are many non-profit organizations that are non-registered charities and they…
Here is Blumbergs’ Written Submission to the Department of Finance about the disbursement quota. As we note in the submission, we are firmly in favour of an increase in the disbursement quota. We so suggest possible changes in our submission…
In this article “Should the disbursement quota for registered charities in Canada change or be left alone?”, Mark Blumberg and Jessie Lang discuss the disbursement quota (DQ) and the Department of Finance’s consultation on whether the Income Tax Act should be…
We have recently upgraded the CharityData.ca website. The work on the upgrade has taken place over the last eight months. Some of the changes or improvements include the following: A new search engine that is quicker than the old…
I was asked the question “How engaged are Canadian registered charities in this election?” by a journalist and to be honest, I had to say I have no idea. There seems to be a big disconnect between the words spoken…
We received a notice from Service Ontario relating to filings prior to ONCA coming into force on October 19, 2021. Essentially any filings done by mail under the OCA need to be completed by September 17, 2021 even though ONCA…
Corporations Canada recently announced that they have taken 2 additional security measures to ensure the accuracy of the information about federal corporations made available to the public. This will impact especially intermediaries such as lawyers and accountants when filing on…
At a time when charities need funds and private foundations alone are sitting on $95 billion dollars, the Advisory Committee to the Charitable Sector (ACCS) has prepared a submission to Finance Canada stating that the disbursement quota (DQ) issue is…
We reviewed the Canadian registered charities that identified they issued official donation receipts and the total amount of donation receipts issued was approximately $19.6 billion. Here is a list of the Canadian charities that issued the largest amount of official…
Here is our note on Which Canadian charities had the largest assets in 2019?. Canadian registered charities are required to disclose on the T3010 their assets. The total assets of all the 83,832 registered charities were over $518 billion. Below…
The Liberals have recently released their Liberal Party Platform-Forward-For-Everyone. The Liberals and Conservatives have always played a culture war game at the expense of the charity sector. Whether it’s political activities of environmental charities, abortion, etc. The cost of…
In the Statistics Canada “Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, third quarter 2021” it has some interesting comments relating to non-profits. Stats Can notes that “This survey collects information on business expectations in the future and the ongoing impact of the…
We recently reviewed the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return database for 2019 as part of the Sean Blumberg Transparency Project. The database covers about 83,892 of the approximately 86,000 registered charities in Canada that had filed their T3010 and were…
Here is the Blumbergs’ Snapshot of the Ontario Charity Sector 2019. We recently reviewed the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return database for 2019 as part of the Sean Blumberg Transparency Project and focussed on the T3010s of Ontario registered charities. …
Here is the Blumbergs’ Canadian Charity Sector Snapshot 2019. We recently reviewed the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return database for 2019 as part of the Sean Blumberg Transparency Project. The database covers about 83,892 of the approximately 86,000 registered charities…
The Conservatives have put forward some proposals in their platform that are unclear and could have a significant negative effect on the charity sector, especially larger charities such as universities, hospitals, international development and environmental organizations. Here are the proposals…
Report #3 of the Advisory Committee on the Charitable Sector was released. I have a few personal views/concerns with this report and the process. My main concern with the ACCS is the huge amount of money spent on the ACCS…
The Conservative party has just released their platform and they have committed to increasing the disbursement quota from the current 3.5% to 7.5%. The Liberal government is currently undergoing a consultation on whether the disbursement quota should be left at…
It took many years but finally, it looks like new Ontario Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA) and the Ontario Business Registry will be launched on October 19, 2021. We will have more on this at our upcoming Blumbergs’ Charity Law Institute…
Yesterday it was announced that the 2021 Federal election will be held on September 20, 2021. Charities and non-profits need to pay attention to the rules that could apply to them including under the Income Tax Act, Third-party election advertising,…
Many Canadian registered charities have March 31 year ends. Mostly these are aligned with government funders who have a similar year-end. These March 31 registered charities need to ensure that they can accurately file their T3010 by September 30.…
In the 2021 Federal Budget, it was announced that the Department of Finance will be doing a consultation on the disbursement quota and whether it should be raised. Interesting that the title used by Finance is “Consultation: Boosting charitable spending…