The Conservatives have put forward some proposals in their platform that are unclear and could have a significant negative effect on the charity sector, especially larger charities such as universities, hospitals, international development and environmental organizations. Here are the proposals…
Report #3 of the Advisory Committee on the Charitable Sector was released. I have a few personal views/concerns with this report and the process. My main concern with the ACCS is the huge amount of money spent on the ACCS…
It took many years but finally, it looks like new Ontario Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA) and the Ontario Business Registry will be launched on October 19, 2021. We will have more on this at our upcoming Blumbergs’ Charity Law Institute…
Yesterday it was announced that the 2021 Federal election will be held on September 20, 2021. Charities and non-profits need to pay attention to the rules that could apply to them including under the Income Tax Act, Third-party election advertising,…
Many Canadian registered charities have March 31 year ends. Mostly these are aligned with government funders who have a similar year-end. These March 31 registered charities need to ensure that they can accurately file their T3010 by September 30.…
In the 2021 Federal Budget, it was announced that the Department of Finance will be doing a consultation on the disbursement quota and whether it should be raised. Interesting that the title used by Finance is “Consultation: Boosting charitable spending…
Here is the Blumbergs’ Submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance for the Pre-Budget Consultations in Advance of the Upcoming 2022 Federal Budget. We offer 11 recommendations namely the following: List of Recommendations Primary Recommendations Recommendation…
In this excellent article by Steven Ayer, he writes that confidence in the charity sector has fallen considerably over the last two decades. The article “Confidence in charity leaders has fallen sharply over the last two decades – what does…
With respect to a recent bill passed by the Senate, but not the House of Commons, relating to structured arrangements/direction and control we have prepared the following blog posts with our concerns about the bill and its ultimate impact. …
The Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) has launched its annual Pre-Budget Consultations for the 2022 Federal budget. If you wish to make a written submission you can do so on the FINA website. All submissions need to be submitted by…
It has been over 2 years since CRA has been offering CRA My Business Account (MyBA) for charities. There are a large number of transactions that can be completed on the CRA MyBA and it is often quicker to do…
I recently took a look at the CRA Charities Listing for groups that were revoked as a result of audit and there were 14 groups listed as revoked as a result of audit: Showing 1 to 14 of 14…
So the rumour mill says that the Liberals may call a Federal election in August. Hopefully, we will not have the misinformation about charities and elections as we saw in 2019. Essentially, if you are a registered charity there are…
A few weeks ago a Canadian registered charity called the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) was involved in a scandal when it was discovered that its president had hired a private investigator to surveil the Chief-Justice of Manitoba who…
I recently received this note from the Ontario Government when I signed up for a mailing list relating to the new Ontario Business Registry (OBR) which will replace the ONBIS. The OBR will be launched at the same time as…
I was in a session with the Ontario government today related to user feedback for the new Ontario Business Registry (OBR). In that session, they advised that the new Ontario Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA) is targetted now to come in…
The CNCA came into force in 2011. It is a really good corporate act that is being used by thousands of Canadian non-profits and charities. The Federal government is launching a consultation on the CNCA and our firm will probably…
I recently read a fascinating report from the Edmonton Chamber of Voluntary Organizations (ECVO) on Transforming the Non-Profit Community in Edmonton. It is relevant to all cities and communities in Canada. So many great quotes but here are just a…
In our note “How has COVID affected funding of the Canadian charity sector Part 2?” we reviewed T3010 data and found amongst the 11,821 registered charities that total revenue for these charities from 2019 to 2020 is down by 5%…
In an article in the National Post entitled “WE in hot water again — this time with the CRA over donation receipts: WE’s legal fees will be far in excess of the $90,000 in dispute. Sometimes you just can’t win for…
In this article Canadian charities giving to Indigenous Charities and Qualified Donees – 2018, Sharon Redsky, Wanda Brascoupe, Mark Blumberg and Jessie Lang reviewed the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return database for 2018 to see how many gifts and the…
In the last couple of weeks I have read two separate CRA notes on the importance of maintaining sufficient separation between a registered charity and a non-qualified donee (whether non-profit, foreign charity, for-profit, etc) Here is an excerpt from a…
Registered charities under the Ontario Corporations Act will be affected by some changes when filing their T3010. CRA will no longer be using the Form RC232, Corporations Information Act Annual Return for Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations. This will affect about 20,000…
On April 21, 2021 we had our Blumbergs’ Canadian Charity Law Boot Camp 2021. It is the second Boot Camp that we have conducted online and our tenth Boot Camp in total. Those who missed the course can catch the…