Over the last week the Salvation Army has told the media that they have fired one employee in Ottawa for allegedly stealing funds and an employee in Toronto for allegedly stealing over $2 million in toys. The stories illustrate the…
The Toronto Sun has written a followup article on the involvement of the mayor of London, Ontario in a type of tax shelter that CRA refers to as an “abusive charity gifting tax shelter.” The Toronto Sun notes “As choppy…
Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf has written an article in Charity Village on a recent private members bill that proposes extending the deadline for donations to end of February for Canadian who donate to registered charities. The end of December deadline would become…
I will be delivering a free presentation in Calgary entitled “Advocacy and Political Activities for Canadian Registered Charities: Some Legal and Ethical Perspectives”. Here is some additional information: Roundtable Presentation (RTP): Mark Blumberg Back by popular demand: Mark Blumberg!…
Here is a guidance from CRA entitled “Qualified donees – Consequences of returning donated property CG-016”. It points out that this CRA Guidance is dealing with tax issues and “These provisions do not address whether a transfer of property to…
Some interesting comments from by John Pecman, Interim Commissioner of Competition at the Canadian Competition Bureau. They deal with non-profits and the importance of compliance and avoiding anti-competitive behaviour. Trade Associations I would like to take a moment to…
Bloomberg News has done a story on how a PR firm has been using charities to promote the interests of various clients and whether this violates certain US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rules. Here is the article:
Here is a Charities Directorate reminder to Canadian Mennonite Publishing Service dated July 23, 2012 about political activities. Canadian Mennonite has been complaining that CRA is trying to create a chill on charity political activities. Apparently here are some articles…
The CRA revoked the Universal Community Help as the “audit has revealed that the Organization is not complying with the requirements set out in the Income Tax Act. In particular, it was found that the Organization failed to maintain adequate…
According to CRA “The Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) audit has revealed that the Organization failed to devote its resources exclusively to its own charitable activities by participating in a promoted donation arrangement in 2008. As a direct result, the Organization…
The Charities Directorate of the CRA has revoked the registration of The Latitude Foundation as a registered charity. According to CRA “The Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) audit has revealed that the Organization failed to devote its resources exclusively to its…
On June 28, 2012, in Barrie, Ontario, a fundraiser named Adam Gour was convicted by McIsaac, J. of fraud for failing to disclose commissions to donors and deceiving donors. The decision may be appealed. The Gour case is important because…
Here are a number of recent letters from the CRA to registered charities that were revoked by CRA for cause .Physicians for Global Survival (Canada) Canadian Burn Foundation Jaamiah Al Uloom Al Islamivvah Ontario Childhood Asthma Foundation
[Updated article 2020] One day CRA will look at revising the T3010. Here are some suggestions for additional questions that they may want to ask. In looking at the US form 990 or UK filing requirements it is clear that…
The Vancouver Sun published a story today entitled “Rick Hansen ‘donated’ rights to his name to his foundation, received $1.8-million tax receipt: Canada Revenue Agency says the 2009 donation does not qualify as a gift and the foundation must cancel…
The Canada Revenue Agency has changed some of their procedures to deal with gifting tax shelter schemes. Below is a press release from CRA. What is interesting first of all is that they call them “gifting tax shelters” in the…
It seems that Obama and Romney are tripping over each other to downsize tax incentives for donations to charities in the US. Here is an interesting article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy entitled “Nonprofit Leaders Urge Obama and Romney to…
Financed announced today a detailed Notice of Ways and Means Motion to implement certain outstanding technical amendments to the Income Tax Act. A number of them relate to charities in Canada and donations to Canadian charities. For example the split…
I will be presenting in Vancouver a full day presentation on charity law and compliance for registered charities on November 6, 2012. It is being put on by CoDevelopment Canada & BCCIC and it is entitled “Charity Law 101”. Just…
The Parliamentary Budget Office has recently released a report entitled “Federal Cost Estimate of Bill C-399: Volunteer Tax Credit”. It is written by Stephen Tapp of the PBO and deals with a private members bill. The discussion in the PBO…
Here is a recent press release from CRA. They went after a tax preparer for issuing some false donation receipts. “Brampton tax preparer guilty of tax fraud scheme Brampton, Ontario, October 18, 2012…The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced today…
Here is a press release from the CRA entitled “The Canada Revenue Agency revokes the registration of Glooscap Heritage Society as a charity ” Despite what some have been suggesting these “abusive charity gifting tax schemes” are not dead. According…
Peter Allard, a lawyer and major donor to the UBC law school recently delivered a speech at the opening of the new school building at UBC. It was a superb speech and I wish anyone interested in the role and…
Here is a great article entitled “From Stories to Evidence: How Mining Data Can Promote Innovation in the Nonprofit Sector”. Michael Lenczner and Susan Phillips discuss the importance of the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return data and its uses in…