For almost a year now (long before COVID) CRA has not revoked one single charity as a result of audit! Admittedly CRA typically in a year revokes only 20-30 charities for all sorts of problems from inappropriate receipting, terrorism, lack…
In the case Eisbrenner v. Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal deals with 2 tax shelter donation schemes that were not accepted in the Tax Court of Canada and the FCA denied these appeals. Here is the text of…
In the case of Mudge v. The Queen, it deals with a charitable scheme and a motion by the taxpayer to strike out portions of CRA’s pleadings when CRA was trying to deny the deductibility of the ‘donation’. The case…
A recent public opinion poll by Proof Communications, which runs the CanTrust index, dealing with trust shows a 6% decline for the non-profit and charity sector from May to September 2020. Clearly having over 2 months of very negative WE…
The WE Charity scandal has now been going on for over 2 months. A few weeks ago the Minister of Finance resigned and parliament was prorogued. Some will say this has nothing to do with WE Charity. I will leave…
Recently, the CBC published an article entitled Charity Gospel for Asia files for creditor protection after $170M lawsuit. It is interesting that people have not heard of Gospel for Asia including those who have worked in the international development sector for…
When CRA audits charities they typically send a long questionnaire to be filled in by the charity on many different issues. With some questionnaires, it is clear that they have a particular interest in a certain area such as foreign…
In this New York Times article published today entitled “Steve Bannon Is Charged With Fraud in We Build the Wall Campaign” it has shocking revelations about a fundraising campaign in the US. Hat tip to Paul Alof for retweeting it.…
With the current focus on WE Charity and the CSSG program, there is a lot that can be learned about transparency in the charity sector. I will now discuss directors’ changes and the importance of notifying Corporations Canada if you…
Here is information from CRA on their upcoming teleconference on the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS). Charities and giving – CRA: Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) question & answer teleconference Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) question & answer…
Today Dalal Al-Waheidi, Executive Director of WE Charity, told the Finance Committee that today they filed their registration for the Federal lobbyist registration system. Here is a printout WE Charity _ Dalal Al-Waheidi, Executive Director – 12-Month Lobbying Summary –…
Would you like to obtain a grant from the Federal government? Well if you “communicate with a public officer holder” asking for funds that probably is lobbying and if you spend over 1/5 of an FTE over any month (A…
There is so much confusion on memberships for Non-Profits and Charities in Canada that we have just launched a 2-hour course on the topic. Here is more information.
The Finance Committee has had a number of meetings to inquire into the CSSG and WE Charity. You can watch the testimony live or a recording of it. A few days after the meeting the PDF of the transcript is…
In what is very good news for many non-profits and registered charities in Canada, Corporations Canada has extended the deadline for AGMs for Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (“CNCA”) corporations till Dec 31, 2020. This helps these organizations in that they…
As we have noted previously, the Federal government has brought in a new bill C-17 dealing with various issues especially extending CNCA deadlines for CNCA financial statement disclosure and AGMs and now that bill has received Royal Assent this week. …
Every year we do a 3-hour course on transparency and the T3010. This year there has been a lot of interest in transparency around charities. On August 5, 2020, at 1 PM we will have our course Transparency in the…
Many people are struggling to understand the CSSG and WE Charity story. Partly it does not help that information is coming out daily that could have all been released weeks or months ago. In addition, there are really three interrelated…
WE Charity is a Federal Corporation under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (“CNCA”). The CNCA is corporate legislation that applies to both Canadian non-profits and charities that are set up under the CNCA. As it covers a number of different…
What is the WE Charity Foundation? It is a charity that probably no one had heard of until recently when the Canadian government decided that it was uniquely qualified to receive a $912 million grant. According to the Kielburgers “WE…
Here is my Written Submission for the Pre-Budget Consultations in Advance of the Upcoming Federal Budget on Transparency and Accountability in the Non-profit and Charity Sector. I provide 10 recommendations and the top two are: Recommendation 1: That the Federal…
In 2012 I had suggested certain additional questions be added to the T3010. There are many groups actively opposing any greater transparency in the sector and so it is disappointing but not shocking that there is today less transparency in…
Here is a CRA letter on whether a public institution is eligible for CEWS: SUMMARY: CEWS—Public institution—ITA-149(1)(a), 149(1)(b), 149(1)(c), 149(1)(d), 149(1)(d.1), 149(1)(d.2), 149(1)(d.3), 149(1)(d.4), 149(1)(d.5), 149(1)(d.6), 149(1.1), 125.7(1), 125.7(2)—Whether a particular entity is eligible for the Canada Emergency Wage…
Here is an application from CRA relating to the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) Canada Revenue Agency Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) Application guide Before you start Have the following information, documents and records ready: active payroll Account Number (note,…