Mark Blumberg’s OTF article on Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA) Here is my article on the new Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (“ONCA”) that I prepared for the Ontario Trillium Foundation blog
CRA recently released a letter which provided comments on the rules relating to the voluntary gifting of property to a registered charity and whether a qualified donee is required to issue a donation receipt. CRA View -Interpretation of a Gift…
CRA recently released a letter that discussed whether an entity that operates a private high school for the purposes of earning profit qualifies as a non-profit organization. CRA held that the Academy was not operating exclusively for a purpose other…
CRA recently issued a letter on whether an NPO will jeopardize its exemption from tax where it incorporates a Community Contribution Company (C3) to carry on for-profit activities. The CRA took the position that, “where an NPO incorporates a C3…
In an interesting coincidence the US Congress published a report on February 11, 2013 on the “Present Law and Background relating to the Federal Tax Treatment of Charitable Contributions”. This was the same day as the Canadian Finance Committee of…
The Charities Directorate has just published a new page which sets out how members of the public can obtain information about registered charities. Here is the link to the CRA page: Here is the text of the CRA page…
I have been concerned that it is not easy for people interested in Ontario non-profit and charity sector to obtain information on Ontario non-profit corporations. With the Federal government the information is available online and free. I have been requesting…
Today the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) released its much anticipated report on Tax Incentives for Charitable Giving in Canada. The report discuss “Charitable Donations and Donors in Canada”, “The Regulation of Charities”, “Tax Incentives and their…
The Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency has announced the revocation of The Voice of the Cerebral Palsied of Greater Vancouver as a charity for allegedly high fundraising costs while using a third party fundraiser. The press release is…
In this article entitled “Atheist Activist Group Sues IRS Over ‘Preferential Treatment of Churches’” in the Christian News Network it discusses the exemption that churches having to filing the US form 990 and how one group is challenging that preferential…
Here is an interesting article entitled “Watchdog Cracks Down on Misleading Statements on Fundraising Costs” Watchdog Cracks Down on Misleading Statements on Fundraising Costs
Here is an important article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy outlining an initiative to try and have charities electronically file their annual returns in the US and have this information more easily accessible online at no charge. Although Canadian charities…
Vancouver Sun investigative reporter David Baines has just written a followup article entitled “Vancouver museum’s “Michelangelo” sculptures fail to sell at auction”. In this article he discusses how the valuations of the sculptures exaggerated their fair market value and how…
The Tax Court of Canada has denied more charitable donation receipts because they did not have all the mandatory elements. The judge also was concerned that the cash ‘donations’ may never have in fact taken place. Here is a link…
The UK is dealing with a scandal right now called The Cup Trust. It involves a complicated scheme to get money refunded through the Gift Aid system. I thought this quote is interesting “Margaret Hodge MP, Labour chairwoman of the…
Here is my article on the new Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (“ONCA”) that I prepared for the Ontario Trillium Foundation blog The main Ontario Trillium Foundation blog is at: For those who are not familiar with OTF it…
Here are comments from the Association of Fundraising Professionals on the Private Members Bill of Mr. Peter Braid, MP from Kitchener-Waterloo. The AFP expresses some concern about the part of the Bill which would change the deadline for donations to…
It is actually quite hard to find out how to get on the CRA newsletter (EML) list. Our firm’s charity law newsletter is far better than the CRA newsletter – our newsletter has all the info from CRA and a…
I missed this article by Vancouver Sun columnist David Baines last summer entitled “Baines: Couple who cheated tax department suffer litany of woes: Chartered accountant Martin Johnson and estranged wife Celia Martin failed to declare fees earned on art donation”. …
The T3010 is a great resource on the Canadian charity sector. We recently reviewed the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return database for 2011 as part of the Sean Blumberg Transparency Project. The database covers 82,848 of the approximately 86,000 registered…
It is interesting to note the amount of attention The Cup Trust scheme is receiving in the UK. Members of Parliament are all over it. The media is covering it. There are all sorts of recriminations about who is responsible…
The Charity Commission of England and Wales has put out a statement on a major scheme involving UK Gift Aid. From a Canadian perspective it is interesting to see the Charity Commission dealing with this sort of abuse. In Canada,…
They note: “Charity donated £55,000 while its investors claimed £46m in gift aid -For a charity attracting more donations than the British Heart Foundation, The Cup Trust’s website is a paltry affair. A single 100-word webpage baldly states that it…
The Hamilton Spectator in an article entitled “Redeemer settles $6-million lawsuit with families” is reporting that Redeemer University College has made a payout to settle a lawsuit over receipts it issued as part of a forgiveable loan program. Here is…