The Charities Directorate of CRA has a guidance entitled “Political Activities” for Canadian registered charities. CRA notes in the guidance that it”… provides information for registered charities on political activities and allowable limits under the Income Tax Act (the Act).…
Whether I like it or not the involvement of Canadian charities in political activities has become a major issue. Therefore, I am creating a new blog category on Canadian charities and political activities. The discussion has been squarely on environmental…
Kathryn Blaze Carlson of the National Post has written another article on charities and political activities entitled “The politics of charity: When is a tax-exempt organization too political?” “The politics of charity: When is a tax-exempt organization too political?” by…
Here is a short summary of the major provisions relating to charities in the 2012 Federal Budget – tried to keep it to 100 words but I did not make it. Budget 2012 and charities * receipting suspension for incomplete…
The Globe and Mail published an article “New rules in budget ‘create more fear’ among politically active charities”. Here is a link to the article:
The Charities Directorate of the CRA has posted information on the Federal 2012 Budget. “Message from the Director General Budget 2012 – Transparency and Accountability On March 29, 2012, the Minister of Finance presented the 2012 federal budget which…
CRA has posted an FAQ on the Transparency and accountability provisions relating to registered charities in the 2012 budget. “Transparency and accountability 1.What are the new rules for registered charities engaged in political activities? 2.Will charities have to submit more…
The 2012 Federal budget has an important piece on transparency namely “…to ensure that charities are accurately reporting in respect of all the activities in which they engage, the CRA will be granted the authority to suspend the tax-receipting privileges…
Some senators have been complaining about environmental groups outside Canada being involved with public policy and political discussions in Canada. I have written about the disclosure of foreign funding by Canadian charities at “So how much do Canadian charities receive…
On March 29, 2012 Finance Minister Jim Flaherty released the Federal Budget at approximately 4PM. There are about 10 pages of information dealing with charities in the almost 500 page document. Here are the pieces of the 2012 Canadian Federal…
A Canadian Senator Nicole Eaton has been commenting on Canadian charities and a number of senators have spoken in agreement and in disagreement. I wish the Senate had access to better information on the charitable sector. For example they may…
Marcel Lauzière of Imagine Canada has written a good piece entitled “Role of Charities” in which he nicely summarizes why charities have, and should have, involvement in the political process. Remember that charities cannot be involved in partisan political activity,…
There has been a little political firestorm last week over US foundations funding of certain Canadian environmental charities. So how much revenue actually comes to Canada from foreign countries including the US? The answer seems to be about $831 million. …
Charities must have exclusively charitable purposes. They cannot have political purposes. Purposes are the legal objects of the charity. Here is an excerpt from CRA Guidance on Political Activities – CPS-022 “4. The difference between political purposes and charitable purposes…
Charities can lose their registered charity status if they do more than 10% political work. In fact this would be rare. CRA generally takes an “education first” approach and depending on the seriousness of the non-compliance and the charity’s willingness…
Yes charities can transfer funds to other organizations for allowable political activities and depending on whether the other organization is a qualified donee (eg. a registered charity) or not makes a difference. Also the recent 2012 Budget will impact on…
The simple answer for most charities is 10% of resources (which includes money, volunteers etc). However, smaller charities may be able to spend more and charities that have not done political in previous years may be able to spend more…
Canadian charities can spend resources on charitable activities, political activities, fundraising activities, administration and other (eg. social). Except for charitable activities their are restrictions and limitations on how much a Canadian charity can do. Some activities which involve political elements…
Canadian charities are not allowed to participate in either illegal or partisan political activities. Here is an excerpt from CRA Guidance on Political Activities – CPS-022 “6.1 What are prohibited activities? A charity may not take part in an illegal…
Here are some examples of prohibited political activities. Charities are prohibited from being involved in prohibited political activities. Here is an excerpt from CRA Guidance on Political Activities – CPS-022 “In the following hypothetical examples, the charity involved is called…
Charities are allowed to conduct “permitted” political activities and here are some examples from the CRA Guidance on Political Activities – CPS-022. “In the following hypothetical examples, the charity involved is called Healthy Retirement and was formed to promote the…
Canadian charities often do not understand what is “political activities”. Many think that political activities is either partisan activities or abusive mud slinging. In fact many charities don’t understand the broad scope of political activities as understood by CRA and…
Here is some guidance from the CRA on activities which they will consider to be part of the charitable activities of a registered charity. Here is an excerpt from CRA Guidance on Political Activities – CPS-022 “In the following hypothetical…
An activity by a registered charity could be charitable if you are helping people “make an informed and critical choice” and it could be propaganda if you are trying to indoctrinate people into a particular viewpoint. Here is an excerpt…