Here is the Blumbergs’ Submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance for the Pre-Budget Consultations in Advance of the Upcoming 2022 Federal Budget. We offer 11 recommendations namely the following: List of Recommendations Primary Recommendations Recommendation…
In this excellent article by Steven Ayer, he writes that confidence in the charity sector has fallen considerably over the last two decades. The article “Confidence in charity leaders has fallen sharply over the last two decades – what does…
With respect to a recent bill passed by the Senate, but not the House of Commons, relating to structured arrangements/direction and control we have prepared the following blog posts with our concerns about the bill and its ultimate impact. …
The Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) has launched its annual Pre-Budget Consultations for the 2022 Federal budget. If you wish to make a written submission you can do so on the FINA website. All submissions need to be submitted by…
It has been over 2 years since CRA has been offering CRA My Business Account (MyBA) for charities. There are a large number of transactions that can be completed on the CRA MyBA and it is often quicker to do…
I recently took a look at the CRA Charities Listing for groups that were revoked as a result of audit and there were 14 groups listed as revoked as a result of audit: Showing 1 to 14 of 14…
So the rumour mill says that the Liberals may call a Federal election in August. Hopefully, we will not have the misinformation about charities and elections as we saw in 2019. Essentially, if you are a registered charity there are…
A few weeks ago a Canadian registered charity called the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) was involved in a scandal when it was discovered that its president had hired a private investigator to surveil the Chief-Justice of Manitoba who…
Corporations Canada has made it easier for Alberta non-profit corporations under the Societies Act (Alberta) and New Brunswick non-profits under the Companies Act that wish to move to the Federal Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (“CNCA”). They have also made it…
I recently received this note from the Ontario Government when I signed up for a mailing list relating to the new Ontario Business Registry (OBR) which will replace the ONBIS. The OBR will be launched at the same time as…
We have created a new online course, Should Our Canadian Business Establish a Corporate Foundation? This course will discuss when it may be advantageous for a Canadian business to launch a corporate foundation. Whether you are a large bank, small…
I was in a session with the Ontario government today related to user feedback for the new Ontario Business Registry (OBR). In that session, they advised that the new Ontario Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA) is targetted now to come in…
The 2019 Federal Budget introduced income tax measures to support journalism, which created a new qualified donee category, the Registered Journalism Organization (“RJO”). According to CRA’s list, there are currently 2 RJOs. CRA has recently provided more information on the…
The CNCA came into force in 2011. It is a really good corporate act that is being used by thousands of Canadian non-profits and charities. The Federal government is launching a consultation on the CNCA and our firm will probably…
A number of regulations for the new Ontario Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA) have been published today in the Ontario Gazette. This raises the question of whether ONCA will come into force on July 1, 2021? It is possible but impossible…
CRA recently sent out a reminder to file the T3010. More than half of registered charities have a year end date of December 31st, which means that their T3010 filing is due June 30th. All charities must ensure that they…
In our note “How has COVID affected funding of the Canadian charity sector Part 2?” we reviewed T3010 data and found amongst the 11,821 registered charities that total revenue for these charities from 2019 to 2020 is down by 5%…
In an article in the National Post entitled “WE in hot water again — this time with the CRA over donation receipts: WE’s legal fees will be far in excess of the $90,000 in dispute. Sometimes you just can’t win for…
Here is a note from CRA trying to spread the word about rapid testing and workplaces dealing with COVID. This also includes a program of the Canadian Red Cross for charities, non-profits or Indigenous community organizations with five (5) personnel…
In this article Canadian charities giving to Indigenous Charities and Qualified Donees – 2018, Sharon Redsky, Wanda Brascoupe, Mark Blumberg and Jessie Lang reviewed the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return database for 2018 to see how many gifts and the…
I listened to a webinar recently that I thought was very good entitled: Community Learning Series – Trust-Based Philanthropy Here is a description of the webinar: As grantmakers, we have a responsibility to confront the ways our sector has contributed…
In the last couple of weeks I have read two separate CRA notes on the importance of maintaining sufficient separation between a registered charity and a non-qualified donee (whether non-profit, foreign charity, for-profit, etc) Here is an excerpt from a…
CRA has announced new webinars dealing with registered charities and receipting. Here is a link. Here is the note from CRA: Charities and giving – What’s new Charities information webinars We are pleased to announce that the next charities…
CRA recently sent out an email entitled “Warning: Watch out for tax shelter gifting schemes“. I am not sure if this is just regular communication or there is an upswing in these. You would think that they would be warning…