CRA Checklist on Canadian Charities avoiding terrorism
The CRA has just published a very helpful page entitled “Checklist for Charities on Avoiding Terrorist Abuse”.
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Bill C-4, An Act respecting not-for-profit corporations – moves forward
The Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology presented a report on the Bill C-4, An Act respecting not-for-profit corporations and certain other corporations and has suggested a number of amendments. Here is the report and here is the slightly…
Draft Consultation on Proposed Guidance on Advancement of Religion as a Charitable Purpose
Here is a copy of a draft paper delivered by Terry de March, Director General of the Charities Directorate, at a conference in Australia. At some point in the future, CRA may have a consultation on this topic and the…
Universal Aide Society Case – FCA does not approve of non-responsive charity request for injunction
In the recent Federal Court of Appeal case Universal Aide Society v Minister of National Revenue, 2009 FCA 107 (F.C.A. Apr 02, 2009), the court denied an injunction by the charity to prevent the CRA from publishing a Notice of…
Charities Directorate of CRA adds many new documents to website
CRA has been busy updating their website. If you are interested in rules and regulations for Canadian charities and have not visited the CRA website recently then I encourage you to do so. Here are some new and recently revised…
Checklist for Canadian Charities on Avoiding Terrorist Abuse from CRA
The CRA has just published a very helpful page entitled “Checklist for Charities on Avoiding Terrorist Abuse”. For those interested in reducing the likelihood that someone will abuse the resources and reputation of your charity you may wish to…
Free Book – Very valuable Advice – Building Capacity Through Financial Management: A Practical Guide
I recently read a little book entitled Building Capacity Through Financial Management: A Practical Guide by John Cammack. It is published by Oxfam. The book is very inexpensive (around $15) and you can get the book for free at …
When do I need to file my Canadian Charity’s T3010A or T3010B Registered Charity Information Return?
Every Canadian registered charity has to file a T3010 information return each year. The return must be filed no later than six months after the end of the charity’s fiscal period. For example, if your charity’s fiscal period end is…
CRA adds disclaimer to T3010 Registered Charity Information Return data on website
CRA has added a disclaimer at the top of its T3010 Registered Charity Information Return information on their website: “The information displayed below has been manually entered by the CRA from the registered charity’s Registered Charity Information Return. This information…
Don`t Leave the T3010B Registered Charity Information Return till it is too late
Canadian charities whose fiscal year end is in 2009 need to file the T3010B within 6 months of the 2009 fiscal year end. The T3010B is a mixed accounting and legal form that requires more information than the previous T3010A.…
New CRA Support for charity legal and compliance education in Canada
The Honourable Jean-Pierre Blackburn announces an investment of $3.1 million to assist small and rural charities understand their legal and compliance requirements Charities and Partnership Outreach Program The Honourable Jean-Pierre Blackburn announces an investment of $3.1 million to assist small…
CRA Publishes New Policy on Application for disbursement quota relief
With the difficult economic times and many charities and foundations feeling the pinch CRA has probably received many more inquiries about disbursement quota issues. This brief policy will clarify some of the concerns and explains when CRA may grant some…
“Canwest nonprofit coverage sensationalist, inaccurate” in Canadian Fundraising & Philanthropy eNEWS
My article was reprinted in the Canadian Fundraising & Philanthropy eNEWS. Of course they cleaned up the grammar and logic! OPINION – Mark Blumberg Canwest nonprofit coverage sensationalist, inaccurate In this article, I look at and criticize a sensationalist…
Fundraising for International Development in Canada
I recently read “An Analysis of Canadian Philanthropic Support for International Development and Relief” which was prepared in 2002 by the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy (now Imagine Canada). The report was paid for by the Aga Khan Foundation and has…
Is this a legitimate Canadian charity? A Comment by Mark Blumberg
The Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) recently dealt with a case called The Millennium Charitable Foundation (The Millennium Charitable Foundation vs. MNR 2008 FCA 414). In The Millennium Charitable Foundation case the law firm of Miller Thomson LLP, which represented…
CIDA – Canadian International Development Agency
If one is interested in international development in Canada CIDA is hard to ignore, and one would not want to ignore CIDA, the Canadian International Development Agency. It spends about 4 billion per year on international development in bilateral, multilateral…
Understanding Financial Responsibilities of Canadian Charities
I am a lawyer and not an accountant. Like most lawyers numbers scare me. After all if we could deal with blood and we would be doctors and if we could add and subtract we would probably want to be…
2009 National Charity Law Symposium In Toronto
The Canadian Bar Association and Ontario Bar Association Charity and Not-for-Profit Law Sections and the Continuing Legal Education Committee are presenting the 2009 National Charity Law Symposium. You can come and hear me speak about what’s new with foreign activities…
US targets tax havens with Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act: Will Canada Follow?
Tax havens and tax evasion costs governments, including Canada, the US and those in the developing world a substantial amount of revenue. Although it undermines Western governments these tax havens devastate the capacity of many Southern countries to provide basic…
CIDA and Canadian Government Makes Major Investment in Preventing tuberculosis (TB)
Tuberculosis (TB) kills about 1.7 million people every year. The Canadian government has just announced spending about 127 million to fight TB. Here is the CIDA announcement:
Alberta Council for Global Cooperation (ACGC) – Canadian National poll on Global poverty
In March 2009 the Alberta Council for Global Cooperation (ACGC), in partnership with the Wild Rose Foundation, had Angus Reid conduct a poll of Canadians. Despite the global economic crisis, it appears that there is substantial support for various actors…
CRA’s Factors that will prevent an organization from being registered as a charity
CRA just put out a easy to read and understand list of “Factors that will prevent an organization from being registered as a charity”. Perhaps CRA put out this list because with 4000 new organizations putting in applications every year…
April 1st is coming up. What should the Charities Directorate of CRA do??
April 1st is April Fools Day. There is so much craziness in the Canadian charity sector right now that you can either ignore it, or laugh or cry. I thought that CRA may want to get into the tradition of…
Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act – Fourth Time Lucky? Will Canada get a new fed corporate law?
The Canadian parliament is once again considering passing the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act. If it is passed it will affect 19,000 Canadian federal corporations that are incorporated under federal law. The Bill is currently in the Industry, Science and Technology…