There are many different ways that you can help. One way is to make a donation to the Humanitarian Coalition. The Humanitarian Coalition is comprised of CARE Canada, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam-Québec and Save the Children Canada. These four agencies are…
The CRA put out a Tax Alert today – they identified that in the last fiscal year (2008-2009) they had “reassessed over 20,000 individuals who had participated in at least 1 of 20 unacceptable tax shelter gifting arrangements.” Also they…
I will be speaking on “Ensuring Good Board Governance and Basic Legal Compliance for a Canadian Foundation” at the 7th Annual Foundation, Endowment & Not For Profit Investment Summit organized by the Strategy Institute The description is as follows:…
As of 2009 Canadian charities need to file the T3010B form for year ends after January 1, 2009. For almost all charities they have no more use for the T3010A. CRA has removed the old T3010A form because so many…
The preliminary schedule for Being Good at Doing Good: Safeguarding Yourself and your Charity in a Complex World was released today Check out the topics and speakers and register while you can for this CLIP conference.
The Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency has put an open call for people to comment on existing policies and guidance of the Charities Directorate. For a number of years the CRA engaged in extensive consultation with the sector…
Through the Charity Law Information Program I will be delivering over 30 online webinars over the next two months. They are priced at $25 per webinar. The webinars are listed at www.capacitybuilders.ca/clip Here is a coupon code xq42k that…
The CRA has updated its guide P113 Gifts and Income Tax for 2009. For the document see This document will be of interest to donors, their professional advisors and charities.
My CanadianCharity channel on Twitter is growing rapidly. I have 117 people following me (and most are not even family) You can access it at It covers legal, ethical and practical issues with charities in Canada. A great way…
In 2009 I attended the Interaction Forum held in Washington, D.C. The Interaction Forum is the largest gathering of US and international NGOS involved with international development. I met some very interesting people and learned quite a lot. One of…
In Newsletter 33, CRA identified various registered charities that have had their registered charity status revoked for involvement in tax shelter gifting arrangements. In Newsletter 33 (), CRA advised as follows: “Tax shelter-related revocations In 2009, the following charities had…
The CRA noted in Newsletter 33 that they are accepting comments on their new Guidance CPS-028. Newsletter 33 () CRA provides in part: “On June 11, 2009, the new Guidance CPS-028, Fundraising by Registered Charities, was posted on the Charities…
The CRA has updated its publication “Donations to Prescribed Universities Outside Canada” The main change seems to be a more explicit requirement that the foreign university must provide information on “the number of Canadian students that have attended the…
Tax expenditures are projections of the lost revenue of all special federal tax measures designed to support the economic and social priorities of the Government and they include things like donation tax credits, GST rebates for charities etc. Here is…
CRA Income Tax Technical News No. 41 was released December 23, 2009 and discusses rulings (opinions) on proposed legislative amendments, the definition of “Tax Shelter” – Subsection 237.1(1) and donation of flow-through shares – subparagraph 38(a.1)(i), subsection 248(35) through (41)…
I am helping organize the CLIP conference Being Good at Doing Good: Safeguarding Yourself and Your Charity in a Complex World Feb. 22-23, 2010 in Toronto.. It promises to be a very exciting and affordable two day conference with many…
Here is a copy of a report on terrorist financing entitled Financial Action Task Force Report on Terrorist Financing
From the basic to the indepth there are numerous resources on the web that can help Canadian charities avoid money laundering and terrorism. BASIC Charities in the International Context by the Charities Directorate of CRA RCMP National Security Information…
Here is an interesting report from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on COMBATING THE ABUSE OF NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS International Best Practices from 2002. It highlights the importance of transparency in non-profit sectors and financial management in thwarting abuse of…
Here is a sample fraud policy from the UK Charity Finance Directors’ Group. While Canadian non-profits and charities do not need to have a fraud avoidance policy this example may be of use to some and certainly being aware of…
Here is an interesting booklet from the CSAE and RBC on Preventing_fraud_in_Not_for_Profit_Organizations.pdf
I will be co-chairing this morning session on February 16, 2010. I will also be delivering a presentation on “Top 15 Legal and Ethical Concerns for Charities in Ontario – Red, White and Yellow Flags” For further details see: http://www.softconference.com/oba/eventdetails.aspx?userID=76072362041538139120201080044&code=10CHA0216C…
Here are copies of the handouts for a number of recent presentations that I have delivered for the Charity Law Information Program (CLIP) *Charity Checklist: Managing Legal Compliance Risks; *Charity Compliance: A Primer for Boards; *Foreign Activities Guidance and Dealing…
Cultural property is one type of gift that a donor can make to a charity. Certain certified cultural property has certain additional benefits associated with its donation. In the CRA Guide Gifts and Income Tax 2009 CRA outlines some of…