CRA recently released a letter which discusses whether certain agencies and boards are considered municipalities or municipal or public bodies performing a function of government and therefore exempt from income tax under paragraph 149(1)(c) of the Income Tax Act (the…
CRA recently released a letter which discusses various issues relating to an inquiry as to whether income from a fundraising event would be exempt from tax as a non-profit organization under paragraph 149(1)(l) of the Income Tax Act (the “Act”).…
The Ontario Court of Appeal recently released a decision, Pankerichan v. Djokic, 2014 ONCA 709, regarding a dispute over the control of church property held in trust under the Religious Organizations' Lands Act or ROLA. If you are involved in an unincorporated…
It is common to have a non-profit organization whose members are various business delivering a product or service. For example, real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and others. In a recent case the Commissioner of Competition v. The Toronto Real…
Blumbergs has provided a submission to the Finance Committee (FINA) entitled Canadians want non-profit transparency and effective charities. Here are some of the other submissions dealing with charities and non-profits or taxation: Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) AUCC CCVO Canadian Secular Alliance…
Recently the Globe and Mail had a story entitled “Canada Revenue Agency delists foreign charities”. CRA has recently added the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation to the “List of registered foreign charitable organizations that have received a gift from Her…
The recent terrorist attacks in Quebec and Ottawa are a reminder of the impact of terrorism. Canadian charities are an important part of Canadian society and it is important that they protect their employees, volunteers, and other resources from…
The CRA announced that it has revoked a charity, Skyway Foundation of Canada, for issuing inflated receipts for donations of marketable securities. In our Receipting Kit we note: “When a donor donates shares on certain stock exchanges, the CRA has…
As many of you know on October 17, 2011, the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (CNCA) came into force. Canadian non-profits under the Canada Corporations Act (CCA) have 3 years to make the transition. The bad news first – today is the…
Here is some recent T3010 information from the Charities Directorate showing the assets and revenues of Canadian registered charities in 2011 and 2012. It is in both English and French. If you are interested in statistics relating to Canadian charities…
I was delighted to read a publication “Donor Beware: Investigation into the sufficiency of the Canada Revenue Agency's warnings about questionable tax shelter schemes”. The special report was prepared in December 2013 by J. Paul Dubé, the Taxpayers' Ombudsman. The 39 page report rips into charitable…
On October 3, 2014, CRA released an updated resource on tax shelter arrangements on the CRA website. This page provides detailed information on what is a tax shelter, provides links to case law dealing with tax shelters, and cautionary steps…
We have prepared a more detailed article on Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) for Canadian Registered Charities and Non-profit Organizations. CASL is a complicated piece of legislation that applies to CEM that are either sent from, or accessed on, a computer…
CRA recently released a letter which discusses whether required changes to a research institute's (the 'Institute') Letters Patent (the charitable purposes and the dissolution clause) in order to obtain status as a registered charity will affect the status of the…
CRA recently released a letter which discusses various issues relating to a non-interest bearing loan provided to a charitable foundation. A taxable Canadian corporation provided a loan to a related Foundation (a Canadian registered charity) which did not carry a…
I was asked by a friend in Vancouver to prepare a Blumbergs’ Snapshot of the BC Charity Sector 2012. Hopefully someone will find it helpful. Some of the highlights of the Blumbergs’ Snapshot of the BC Charity Sector include: 11,995…
CRA has been sending out numerous notices with respect to the importance of Canada Corporations Act (CCA) corporations continuing to the new Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (CNCA). A number of people have contacted us with respect to the notice. In…
The Canadian Charity Law Association will be delivering two webinars, entitled “Should we set up a Canadian Charity and if so how?” on October 21 at 12:00 PM EDT and “Top 10 Charity Law Issues for Canadian Registered Charities” on November…
On August 29, 2014, the Federal Court re-affirmed its previous decision that a registered charity, in itself does not constitute a “public authority” for purposes of registering an official mark under the Trade-marks Act. The Federal Court made the following…
I will be delivering a webinar for the Canadian Charity Law Association entitled “Foreign Activities 101: Introduction to Canadian charities carrying out foreign activities”. It is free but you need to register. Here is a link to the registration page…
I recently saw this notice from RBC to a client of theirs that the registered charity's banking services are at risk if they do not continue to the CNCA. RBC also wants copies of the continuance documents. Just a reminder…
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has revoked the charitable registration of the Friends and Skills Connection Centre, a charity based in Etobicoke, Ontario. The revocation was effective as of September 13, 2014. According to CRA, the charity was not maintaining…
Did Mr. Imoh give charitable donations of 45,000, in cash, to Revival Time Ministries International over 3 years? Did Mr. Bello give $15,000 to the same charity? This is the crux of the case. You can read about Revival Time…
We recently reviewed the T3010 information for 2012. The database was prepared by the Charities Directorate of CRA in June 2014 and covers about 85,477 charities which is almost all of the 2012 T3010 returns. Canadian registered charities were required…