Canadian registered charities often have to provide assistance to people in disasters. Does an individual or business have to include this amount in their income? CRA recently released a letter discussing this issue. Here is the text of the document…
Corporations Canada is looking at changing their fees in relation to the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (CNCA) as well as some other acts. Some of the most common fees like filing the annual return will be reduced and others will…
The Institute of Legacy Management has published voluntary ethical guidelines for charities' legacy professionals, covering issues that can arise when charities receive or solicit a legacy or bequest, including: doubts about the source of the donor's income or the donor's…
On Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada released two decisions relating to the proposed law school at Trinity Western University namely Law Society of British Columbia v. Trinity Western University and Trinity Western University v. Law Society of Upper Canada. There was extensive…
The Toronto Star recently published an article: “Inside the offshore tax scheme that left iconic Olympian Donovan Bailey owing nearly $2.3 million in unpaid taxes“. ; In the article, investigative reporter Jesse McLean covered a complicated scheme to help an athlete…
The Standing Committee on Finance (SCOF) has launched its pre-budget consultation for the 2019 Federal Budget. Briefs can be submitted by August 3, 2018. SCOF provides a written brief template and requires that submissions be no longer than 2000 words. …
Further to the changes on April 1, 2018 to the Charities Accounting Act relating to Ontario charities and payments to certain people, the Ontario Public Guardian and Trustee has released a guide “Payments to Directors & Connected Persons“. It is…
Here is our Blumbergs’ Receipting Kit for Canadian registered charities 2018. If you wish to receive updates on the Receipting Kit you should join our Blumbergs email newsletter to receive regular updates on charity compliance issues affecting Canadian registered charities. There is…
For those who read our blog you will know that we are very pleased with the new Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (“CNCA”) that came into effect in 2011. It is a very easy to use modern corporate act that allows a tremendous amount…
We recently looked at Which Canadian charities received funds for political activities from foreign sources in 2016? We hope that you find the article interesting.
The Canadian charity and non-profit sector are an important part of the Canadian economy and have a huge impact on the lives of Canadians. With the registered charity sector (approximately 86,000 organizations) the public has up-to-date and detailed information. Unfortunately,…
The Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector has started having meetings and inviting witnesses. We covered the details of the mandate at Senate appoints Special Committee on the Charitable Sector to look at laws and policies and impact Here…
On May 10, 2018, Corporations Canada announced that for new Federal corporations that are newly incorporated, such as Federal non-profit corporations under the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (CNCA), Corporations Canada would be providing the Canada Revenue Agency Business Number (BN) immediately after…
I am still surprised at the number of Canadian fundraisers that I meet who have not read the CRA's Fundraising Guidance or have read it but don't remember any of the details! Here is the Fundraising Guidance on the CRA…
Here is the standard CRA response letter re Complaint About a Particular Canadian Registered Charity.
The Department of Finance has released the 2018 Report on Federal Tax Expenditures. The document is over 300 pages and discusses the financial costs of certain Canadian tax measures including donation tax incentives. These costs are referred to as “tax…
I will be delivering three presentations in Fort McMurray on Tuesday May 29, 2018 around non-profits and charity compliance issues as well as setting up social enterprises, non-profits and charities. If you are in the area you might find them…
CRA has confirmed that the value of receipts issued by a few charities that were part of 'abusive charity gifting tax shelters' was over $7 Billion dollars and resulted in the reassessment by CRA of over 208,000 taxpayer returns. The height…
Here is my recent webinar Top Charity Compliance Issues for Canadian Registered Charity with Mark Blumberg. It was wonderful to have over 3000 people registered for the webinar and thank you CharityVillage for hosting. You can see the presentation, the slide…
We recently wrote about obtaining the CRA guidance on advancement of religion at CRA’s Draft Guidance Advancement of religion and charitable registration is released through ATIP. That article included a July 2016 version of the CRA guidance on religion which…
Here is our article Common Paragraphs from CRA in the Notification of Registration Regarding Operating a Registered Charity. It provides many of the common warnings or suggestions from CRA that are included in Notifications of Registration from the Charities Directorate.
Here is our article CRA letter on Ineligible Individual and Impact on Charity Application which provides a copy of a standard letter when CRA determines that an ineligible individual may be involved with a charity application.
The case of Markou v. The Queen, 2018 TCC 66 (CanLII) in the Tax Court of Canada dealt with a leveraged donation program called “Donation Program for Medical Science and Technology”- what CRA used to refer to as an “abusive charity…
The Charities Directorate of the CRA appears to be making further changes to their website. It moved in 2017 to the main Canada.ca Federal government website. Now I noticed their A-Z index of topics is now searchable. I think this…