In Johnson v. The Queen the Tax Court of Canada dealt with a case in which Mr. Johnson had made claims in 2002 and 2003 taxation years for donations of $18,550 and $15,500 respectively. Mister Justice Campbell concluded “It is my view that…
The Department of Finance has released the “Notice of Ways and Means Motion to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on February 11, 2014 and other measures and Explanatory Notes”. Some of the provisions were announced in…
The FCA decision in Julie Guindon v. Her Majesty the Queen has been given leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. We covered this case here (Tax Court) and here (Federal Court of Appeal).
The CRA recently released a letter which discusses whether a taxpayer's estate was entitled to donation tax credits claimed for a charitable gift made by an individual in her secondary will. The use of a Primary and Secondary Will may…
Here is the list of the Ontario non-profit corporations under the Ontario Corporations Act. There are 59,605 Ontario corporations on the list. The list is 1084 pages long. Some of the Ontario corporations are active and some are inactive. We…
For a number of years we have been providing the public with copies of CRA revocation letters. These letters set out the CRA reasons for revocation of charitable status when CRA is alleging cause. We recently requested from CRA some…
Is an aboriginal band considered a level of government by CRA? Here is the response I recently received from CRA: “We had some discussion regarding this question you sent a little while ago, and I have a response for you.…
As some people know October 17, 2014 is the deadline set for Canada Corporations Act (CCA) non-profit corporations to move over to the new CNCA or face potential dissolution. It will be 3 years from the date the CNCA came…
Federal non-profit corporations under the Canada Corporations Act (CCA) have until October 17 to continue/move over to the new CNCA. Here is a short webinar with 15 slides and takes 15 minutes on the CNCA continuance process. If you have…
Charities Information Webinar registration for the March 2014 session is now open. The topics are: What is a Related Business? (CPS-019) March 11, 2014 – 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., Eastern standard time How to donate wisely – Information for donors…
Here is an interesting case in which a municipality, that was allegedly involved in a charity scheme, wanted leave to intervene in a Tax Court of Canada matter involving a donor who had made a donation to the municipality. The…
Here are some interesting numbers from the Charities Directorate. 4,456 applications and 2060 of them are registered/reregistered. Most applications are either returned for incomplete information, denied, withdrawn or abandoned. It just reiterates the importance of carefully preparing any charity application…
The Charities Directorate just posted an important message which provides an update on the Charities Directorate activities. There is discussion of technology, guidances, CNCA, compliance activities but most importantly extensive discussion of political activities. Here is a link to the…
In the case of Ofori-Darko the CRA disallowed a claim of about $30,000 over 3 years. The people who allegedly made the donation appealed to the Tax Court of Canada and the TCC dismissed the appeal on the basis that…
The Charity Commission of England and Wales notes that “There is genuine and desperate need for humanitarian assistance to help people affected by the conflict in Syria. UK charities and their partners are playing an important role in the delivery…
The CRA has just released its Non-Profit Organization Risk Identification Project Report. The relatively short report makes for interesting reading. It deals with the 80,000 or so non-profits that are not registered charities. This will have an impact on groups…
The CRA has reminded Canadian registered charities and registered Canadian amateur athletic associations that are incorporated under the Canada Corporations Act that the have till October 17, 2014 to continue to the new CNCA or face possible revocation of charity…
Today Finance Minister Jim Flaherty introduced the Canadian Federal Budget 2014. The budget had a large number of provisions dealing with non-profits and charities. Here are some excerpts from the Federal Budget in one PDF document. Overall I was…
We recently reviewed the T3010 information for 2012 to see how many charities identify themselves as doing work that relates to the environment. When we reviewed the T3010 about 1150 registered charities identify themselves as carrying on some work in…
About 19,000 Canadian charities have filed their 2013 T3010s so far. Of those charities some note that they are doing political activities. Here are the descriptions of the political activities described by those charities.
In a Globe and Mail article entitled “Budget will include measures to expose links between charities and crime, Flaherty says” there is a discussion of potential items affecting charities in the 2014 Federal Budget set to be delivered on February…
Last night I was interviewed by Evan Solomon on CBC Power and Politics discussing Canadian charities and political activities. Other guests included Marlo Raynolds (former Executive Director of the Pembina Institute) and John Bennett of Sierra Club Canada. Here is…
The UK Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has issued reports on the Charities Commission and UK tax authorities (HMRC) and their handling of regulatory matters. The Charities Commission has put out a press release with a very solid response to the…
Mr. Berg made a ‘donation’ to a registered charity, Cheder Chabad, and the registration of that charity has subsequently been revoked. The Allen Berg case is important because it discusses “donative intent” and the Friedberg decision. It upholds Marechaux and…