Blumbergs’ Canadian Charity Law Boot Camp 2015
We are looking forward to presenting the Blumbergs' Canadian Charity Law Boot Camp 2015 on April 14, 2015. For information or to register see: Blumbergs' Canadian Charity Law Boot Camp 2015
Political Activities and Canadian charities
Canadian charities can carry out more political activities than in the past. It can be important in achieving your mission that your charity conducts political activities. However, there are still many rules that apply, whether from the Income Tax Act (Canada), lobbyist registration legislation, election advertising legislation or foreign interference legislation. We assist Canadian charities in understanding practical issues and the compliance requirements relating to political activities. If your organization wishes to retain our law firm to assist your charity or non-profit with political activities and compliance requirements for political activities, you can contact us.
Which Canadian registered charities spent the most on political activities in 2013?
CRA has posted the T3010 Registered Charity Information Returns for 82,000 of the 86,000 Canadian registered charities. About 477 Canadian registered charities identified conducting political activities whether by volunteer, staff or spending funds. Here is a link to our article…
Which Canadian Registered Charities Spent Money on “political activities” and how much in 2012
We recently reviewed the T3010 information for 2012. The database was prepared by the Charities Directorate of CRA in June 2014 and covers about 85,477 charities which is almost all of the 2012 T3010 returns. Canadian registered charities were required…
Andrew Coyne: “Problem with charities isn’t their politics, it’s their generous tax credit”
Andrew Coyne recently wrote an opinion piece in the National Post in which he supports the idea of eliminating the tax credit for donations to registered charities. The article is entitled “Problem with charities isn’t their politics, it’s their generous…
Partial Glimpse at 2013 T3010 Filings Dealing with Political Activities by Canadian Charities
In this article entitled “Partial Glimpse at 2013 T3010 Filings Dealing with Political Activities by Canadian Registered Charities” I discuss the 51,000 Canadian registered charities have had their T3010 for 2013 added to the CRA database so far. This 51,000 represents…
Mark Blumberg’s submission to the Finance Committee for 2015 pre-budget consultations
Here is a copy of our submission to the Finance Committee for the 2015 pre-budget consultations. In the pre-budget submission we discuss having greater transparency with both non-profit organizations and registered charities and also the issue of charities and political…
Revocation letters by CRA for charities and political activities – over the last 20 years.
Over the last 20 years CRA has revoked a number of charities for ostensibly being involved in partisan political activities, or exceeding the 10% of resources on political activities, or for having an unstated political purpose. In light of all…
Charity Commission forces “environmental” charity to set up campaigning arm
Here is an interesting article that appeared in the website. It discusses a “climate change-sceptic charity” that is being forced to stop certain “educational” activities and to set up an affiliated but separate entity to propagate material that “lacked balance and…
Focus by media on CRA political activity audits – some preliminary thoughts
In the last week there has been a large number of articles in the Canadian media on Canadian charities and political activities. I would make a few preliminary points that sometimes get lost in the coverage. 1) Canadian registered charities can…
How much is CRA planning on spending to deal with the issue of charities and political activities?
In the 2012 Federal Budget the Conservative government announced that it was allocating $8 million for various initiatives related to charities and political activities. More recently papers have been describing a $13 million budget. I wondered about the…
CRA revokes Jesus of Bethlehem Worship Centre as a charity – cites ineligible individuals
Finally. It took more than 3 years but CRA has identified that it has revoked a charity for in part having “ineligible individuals” controlling the organization. I was sure that I was going to die of old age before that…
Cathy Hawara’s speech on constitutional framework, political activities, compliance and IT
In May, Cathy Hawara, the Director General of the Charities Directorate delivered a speech which touches on a number of important issues such as the constitutional framework for charities, political activities by registered charities, independence of the regulator, compliance approach…
Blumbergs’ Snapshot of the Canadian Charity Sector 2012
We have just released the Blumbergs’ Snapshot of the Canadian Charity Sector 2012. The Canadian charity sector has grown again. The Canadian charity sector is a vital part of Canadian society and economy with revenue of over $223 billion and expenditures of…
Further T3010 descriptions of political activities by Canadian registered charities
The T3010 now asks additional questions about political activities. So far the CRA 2013 database has about 36,000 charities on it. There are in total approximately 86,000 Canadian registered charities who will file their T3010s. Therefore, less than half of the 2013…
CRA launches new video series on charities and political activities
The CRA has prepared a new video series entitled “Charities and their participation in political activities”. It has 3 videos which are each about 3 minutes long. There has been a great deal of interest in political activities and charities…
Blumbergs’ Charity Legal Checklist
Here is an updated version of the Blumbergs Charity Legal Checklist. We hope that you find it a useful tool to help your Canadian registered charity deal with compliance issues. It is a work in progress so please do send in…
Some historical CRA letters when registered charity status is revoked – Part II
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. This the second part of the…
Some historical CRA letters when revocation of charity status
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 a registered charity pressuring a First Nations Band a political activity?
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.…
“Focus on Canadian Charities and Political Activities” in Canadian Donor’s Guide
Here is a short article that I wrote entitled “Focus on Canadian Charities and Political Activities” for the Canadian Donor’s Guide in May 2012. Download Article
Important update from the Charities Directorate’s Director General Cathy Hawara
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…
CRA “Non-Profit Organization Risk Identification Project Report” released
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…
Who are the Canadian environmental charities?
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…
T3010 descriptions of Canadian charities and political activities
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.