Last year the Federal Court of Appeal in Cheder Chabad v. The Queen, ordered CRA to delay the publication of a notice of intention to revoke the charitable status of the registered charity by four months. It appears that CRA…
If you search the CRA Charities Listing under revoked for cause charities it provides a list of Canadian charities that have been revoked for cause. I noticed recently that Assemblée de Dieu de Montreal-Nord has had its charity status revoked…
The BC Supreme Court recently dealt with a case involving TLC The Land Conservancy of British Columbia Inc. and whether certain assets may be used to satisfy creditors. TLC is having financial problems and trying to restructure under the Companies’…
CRA recently released a letter which discussed whether an Indian Band is a public body performing a function of government within the meaning of 149(1)(c) and therefore exempt from income tax on the interest income received from a GIC. The…
CRA recently released a letter which discussed whether scholarship funds received by an employee are taxable as employment income under subsections 5(1) or 6(1) of the Income Tax Act. CRA examined a situation where a registered charity (the “Foundation”) received…
On January 10, 2014 David Ajise, a former tax preparer operating in Toronto, was sentenced to a 30 month jail term for fraud over $5,000. Ajise is the former proprietor of Datronix Solutions, a tax preparation service. A CRA investigation…
CRA released a letter which discusses whether a member of a not-for-profit corporation without share capital is a “shareholder” within the meaning of that term in subsection 248(1) for purposes of subsection 15(1) of the Income Tax Act. CRA’s view…
The Globe and Mail recently had an article which discusses the concept of perpetual endowments as well as the use of donor advised funds and bequests. Read article > Here is also another article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy dealing with…
We recently reviewed the T3010 information for 2012. We looked at government funding and specifically which Canadian registered charities received the most funds from municipal governments. Please review my caveats at the end about the reliability and usage of T3010…
We recently looked at government funding and specifically which Canadian registered charities received the most funds from provincial governments in 2012. Most government funding is from the provincial level of government and therefore provincial funding is vital for the Canadian…
Probably not. Otherwise that would be about 5-10 times more funds than all Canadian registered charities spent on political activities in 2012. In fact, when we reviewed who spent the most on political activities it appears to me that the…
The problem of “abusive charity gifting tax schemes” continues. These are schemes that promise that if you put in say $1000 through a complicated scheme you will end up with a $5000 receipt and therefore you can save $2500 in…
There is a category of qualified donee, ie. organizations that can issue tax receipts, called “municipal or public body performing a function of government in Canada”. This group is largely first nations bands but also could include school districts or…
I recently compiled a list of which Canadian charities received funds from the Canadian Federal Government. Here is the list which includes all Canadian registered charities that received over $500,000 in funds from the Federal Government. Which Charities Received the…
We recently reviewed the 2012 T3010 Registered Charity Information Returns for largest inter charity gifts. Here is a list of all gifts over $500,000 from the 2012 T3010. Largest Gifts from Canadian Charities to other Qualified Donees – 2012
The Charity Commission of England and Wales is under fire over the last few months. Those who are interested in charity regulation should be paying attention. The Charity Commission is a beacon for charity regulators and those that want charities…
We have updated the Blumbergs’ 2013 Receipting Kit. Here is a link to the new Blumbergs' 2018 Receipting Kit.
CRA is putting out better notices on donating wisely. I particularly like this advice “Get to know the charity.” Start by visiting the charity’s website to learn about its activities and how it’s managed. You can also review its financial…
On November 28, 2013 the Supreme Court of Canada denied leave to appeal in the case of Prescient Foundation v. Minister of National Revenue. The SCC awarded costs against the appellant. Here is the SCC docket. Here are some of…
The Federal Court of Appeal has decisively dismissed the Kossow appeal. Kossow dealt with what CRA would term an “abusive charity gifting tax scheme”. Kossow is the second major case dealing with these schemes, the first one being Marechaux. The…
John Montague has written an article entitled “The Law and Financial Transparency in Churches: Reconsidering the Form 990 Exemptions” in the Cardozo Law Review. In the US, churches don’t have to file the Form 990 annual return, however, in Canada…
Industry released today draft regulations to Canada’s Anti-spam Legislation (CASL) which will now come into effect on July 1, 2014. An important exclusion that will be welcomed by registered charities is that the Act does not apply to an electronic…
The CRA put a reminder on their website today “Does your organization make its resources available to, or work with a municipal or public body performing a function of government in Canada, such as a First Nation? The December 31,…
I just reviewed the latest T3010 data disk for 2013 and here are the descriptions of activities for political activities by Canadian charities. This is only based on 7900 of the approximately 86,000 charities. Description Wrote less than 5 letters…