Here is the CRA Guidance Purposes Not Furthered which discusses when CRA would register a charity when with respect to some purposes there may not be enough information. Essentially, it sets out the risk assessment that CRA would use. CRA…
Here is CRA Guidance on Credit Counselling. The document was obtained through access to information and privacy. The guidance “discusses considerations for assessing whether credit counselling services further charitable purposes and meet other requirements of the Income Tax Act. It…
Here is the CRA Guidance CRA Guidance Classifying income earned by registered charities from their rental of real estate obtained through access to information. The guidance discusses “whether the revenue earned from rental of real property by a charity (in…
The Honourable Justice Guy R. Smith dismissed an appeal on the Banyan Tree Foundation matter. This goes back to 2002 and donations that CRA was alleging were part of an abusive charity gifting tax scheme. Here is a copy of…
The Department of Finance has released the Notice of Ways and Means Motion to introduce an Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on April 7, 2022, and other measures. Here is a PDF. It is…
The Logic recently had an article entitled “Liberals plan to order increase in charity foundations’ spending, following The Logic’s investigation“. The article notes: The commitment comes after an investigation by The Logic found that seven percent of charities, and…
I am very grateful that Mary Barroll, President of CharityVillage, spent over an hour with me discussing the charity sector in Canada including business activities and social enterprise as well as regulator and public policy issues. For those interested in…
In an article entitled Charities will soon have a higher spending quota to keep charitable status, Chris Nardi of the National Post discussed the Federal budget’s change in the disbursement quota. For our coverage, see Canadian Federal Budget 2022 and…
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland tabled a budget today at 4:00 PM. Here is our article 2022 Canadian Federal Budget and its impact on the Canadian charitable sector. The budget dealt with many big issues surrounding Canada’s COVID-19 recovery and housing,…
The CRA put out a press release announcing that the Minister of National Revenue has appointed nine new members to the Advisory Committee on the Charitable Sector (ACCS). The ACCS has been, in my view, unrepresentative of the charity and…
Non-profits and charities that fundraise in Alberta and are well-informed of their obligations probably received a bit of a surprise when they applied for registration under the Alberta Charitable Fundraising Act this year. The previously brief, relatively painless registration process…
The CRA recently published their annual “Report on the Charities Program 2020 to 2021″. (PDF) Here are some comments: The Minister of National Revenue states: “To continue building and maintaining public trust in the charities regulator and the charitable sector,…
Here is our article List of Canadian Registered Charities Revoked as a Result of an Audit Over the Last 30 Years In the article, we discuss how we recently requested and received from CRA a list of all Canadian registered charities…
Here is our Blumbergs Snapshot of the Canadian Charity Sector 2018 – Fundraising which shows fundraising revenues and costs over a number of years. Some of the highlights of the Blumbergs’ Snapshot of the Canadian Charity Sector 2018 –…
I have not been keeping up with my reading. Just took a look at the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics and their report from June 2021 on Questions of Conflict of Interest and Lobbying in Relation…
Let’s start with the most obvious. Canadian individuals and corporations can donate to numerous Canadian registered charities that are dealing with the situation in Ukraine and neighbouring countries. Here are examples of some of the groups: Canadian Red Cross Society…
Here are some suggestions for donating to a Canadian charity in a disaster such as we are seeing in Ukraine. You might also find our article Helping Ukraine deal with the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion helpful. Select…
Canada, on February 25, 2022, announced a $10 million matching fund for gifts by individuals to the Canadian Red Cross Society for their Ukraine Humanitarian Crisis Appeal. Then, Canada’s matching fund for the Canadian Red Cross Society was increased to…
Here is a recent case in the Federal Court of Appeal with charity Human Concern International v. Canada. (PDF) We had discussed this matter previously. Human Concern International is a Canadian registered charity and CRA had suspended their qualified donee…
We received information from Ontario’s Anti-Racism Directorate at the Ministry of Citizenship and Multiculturalism about a new grant program to support Anti-Hate Security Measures for Faith-Based and Cultural Organizations. The Ontario Grant to Support Anti-Hate Security Measures for Faith-Based and…
The Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson is reviewing CRA audits of registered charities. I have extensive comments at the bottom of this note, if you want to skip some of the background below. There have been concerns expressed by some in the…
In a press release, the CRA reminds groups that COVID subsidies need to be included in your reporting. Specifically for NPOs and charities, they note: Tax-exempt employers and entities If you are a tax-exempt employer or entity (such as a…
CRA has recently updated guidance “P113 – Gifts and Income Tax 2021” with information on the donations and tax incentives. CRA updates the guidance every year although the changes are usually not that substantial. In this case, there were no…
The CharityData.ca website is the preeminent freely available transparency tool for information on Canadian registered charities. It has been available since August of 2016 and we have been making intermittent improvements to CharityData.ca ever since it was created. If you…