The CRA released a report today entitled Report on the Charities Program. It has lots of useful information on the charity sector, regulation of charities, statistics relating to the Charities Directorate and various new developments. Although this is the…
CRA uses a risk based approach to deciding which charities are to be audited. CRA a few months ago announced they are adjusting their audit strategy to focus more on larger Canadian registered charities. I guess someone in the past…
The CRA has recently completed a 2 1/2 month consultation with Canadians on the ability of Canadian charities to conduct political activities. Here is the full text of the CRA press release on the closing of the political activity consultation on…
CRA's Guidance CG-002, Canadian Registered Charities Carrying Out Activities Outside Canada discusses a “development project”. The guidance provides Canadian registered charities greater leeway in certain instances when conducting a “development project” to be able to hand over capital assets and…
The Charity Commission of England and Wales recently published an Inquiry Report into a former charity named REDAID. It is well worth reading. In Canada, directors of registered charities sometimes focus too much on the Income Tax Act requirements of…
CRA has had an alphabetical index of all policies and guidance relating to charities. This is a very helpful tool for charities wanting to see if CRA has a position on a particular issue. The only problem with the list…
Imagine Canada has announced that their original “Ethical Code Program” is being merged with their new Standards Program. They are notifying charities that “The Program will remain open, and participants may continue to use the trustmark, until December 31, 2016. After that…
Tides Canada quietly announced earlier this year that their international donation matching system between the Tides US and Tides Canada is being shutdown as of the end of this 2016 year. The Tides mechanism was essentially a matching mechanism between…
We recently reviewed the private foundations contained on the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return for 2013, 2014 and 2015. We looked at who had the largest expenditures, what their total assets were and the percentage of total assets that were disbursed…
British Columbia’s new Societies Act (the “new Act”), which replaces the previous Society Act (the “old Act”), was passed on May 14, 2015, and recently came into force on November 28, 2016. Societies incorporated in British Columbia will have two…
I recently read a press release from a Canadian think tank that said “Charitable giving in Canada hits 10-year low”. They proposed “In total, Canadians claimed $9 billion in charitable donations in 2014. But had Canadians donated in 2014 at…
The Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) recently released a new form which allows charities to easily update CRA on any changes to their directors, trustees or like officials. The Charities Directorate will not speak to an individual…
There is an amazing tax incentive available to Canadians. Few people who are knowledgeable about charities want to discuss it. It just does not get any respect! I am referring to the ability of Canadians to donate to “foreign prescribed universities”.…
Recently in the UK there were fines imposed by the Information Commissioner’s Office on two prominent charities. This raised the issue of charities and privacy of donor information. Essentially there were three concerns raised. 1) Screening donors for wealth and lifestyle…
Canada Revenue Agency recently released a new CRA guidance, CG-026, Relieving conditions attributable to being aged and charitable registration that replaces the previous CPS-002 Relief of the Aged CRA guidance. The new guidance explains how CRA interprets and applies the law as…
CRA has just released a chapter in their Income Tax Folio series for charities and non-profit organizations. The new part is S7-F1-C1, Split-receipting and Deemed Fair Market Value. Income Tax Folios are CRA’s official summary of its interpretation on certain…
Mark Blumberg recently presented a webinar for the Canadian Charity Law Association (CCLA) to discuss CRA’s consultation on political activities and the importance of Canadian charities conducting political activities. The deadline for submissions to CRA has been extended to…
Employment and Social Development Canada is running the Canada’s Volunteer Awards program, to recognize the outstanding contributions of individual volunteers, not-for-profit organizations and businesses in Canada that are helping communities. If you are interested in submitting a nomination for the awards, you can…
CRA recently announced that the mailing of a printed copy of the Form T2081, Excess Corporate Holdings Worksheet for Private Foundations will no longer be sent out to affected charities. However, this form will be accessible to affected charities on…
CRA recently announced that the deadline for online submissions for its political activities consultation has been extended to December 14th, 2016. The CRA is looking for feedback on the rules and CRA's guidance relating to political activities. You can email your submissions…
Corporations Canada recently implemented changes to a number of its forms on its website under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act ('CNCA'), the Canada Business Corporations Act, and the Special Act of Parliament. Some of these changes include the addition of the new department name…
Liberal MP Alexandra Mendès has put forward a Private Members' Motion on November 16, 2016 that requests that the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities will study the non-profit and charity sector.…
Here is an article I wrote entitled “Some thoughts on the Trump victory and its impact on Canadian nonprofits and charities“
If your charity is considering conducting political activities here are some basic questions you might want to ask: What are the charity’s legal “objects” – not mission or vision etc. – charities are only supposed to deal with political activities…