Here is part of a press release from the Charity Commission of England and Wales concerning “dominant individuals“. The Charity Commission is urging trustees to guard against dominant individuals taking inappropriate control of their charity’s management. The regulator of charities…
The Honourable Justice F.J. Pizzitelli of the Tax Court of Canada dealt with a motion in V. Ross Morrison v. The Queen. The court dismissed the motion with costs. The cases deals with the Canadian Humanitarian Trust (“CHT”) and Canadian Gift Initiative…
I had the pleasure of being on The Exchange on CBC on December 11, 2015 to discuss the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (“CZI”) with Bruce MacDonald, CEO of Imagine Canada. You can watch the segment of The Agenda here (at approximately 18:35).…
The CRA has been focusing in on charities that have not been active for a number of consecutive years. They have been sending out letters to the various charities asking them if they want to voluntarily give up their charitable…
In R. v. Kueviakoe, 2015 ONCJ 681 (CanLII) Ekue Kueviakoe was charged with numerous offences contrary to the Income Tax Act (Canada) because he prepared many false income tax returns. He was fined at a rate of 100% of the tax avoided on…
As we know the Federal government is creating a new higher top marginal tax rate for those earning income over $200,000 and increasing the tax on that income from 29% to 33%. From a tax policy perspective this will increase the progressivity of the income…
There has been a large amount of scrutiny of fundraising practices in the UK over the last number of years and especially the last few months. The Charity Commission of England and Wales has published new draft guidance “which states…
The Toronto Star had an article of December 5, 2015 entitled “Cancer foundation co-founder misused donor cash, judge finds”. It sheds some light on how a co-founder of a Canadian registered charity, Steven Sokolowski, has been ordered to repay to the…
Today the Canada Revenue Agency announced the revocation of the registration of of the Canadian registered charity Le Refuge des Rescapes for issuing over $2 million in official donation receipts connected with an abusive charity gifting tax scheme. Here is a copy…
I noticed recently a couple of new notices/disclaimers on the CRA website relating to CharityFocus.ca and the credibility of registered charities. The first statement: Complementing the Charities Listings is Charity Focus, a tool that was developed by Imagine Canada in…
The Globe and Mail on November 24, 2015 had an article “Ottawa suing UBC, former faculty of dentistry member for misuse of funds”. The article alleges that the Federal government is claiming the return of millions of dollars as funds were…
Peter Henderson of the Globe and Mail has a short article “Treat holiday charitable donations like an investment” in which he discusses different peoples perspectives on how to choose a good charity. For those who are interested in this…
The Mowat Centre recently released a report with the aim of promoting the discussion of decent work in the NFP sector and encouraging action on NFP workforce development issues. The report is a result of an 18 month collaboration between the Ontario Nonprofit Network,…
The Charity Commission announced that its funding has been frozen until 2020. The Charity Commission has already lost half of its budget over the last few years and with this freeze the budget is actually decreasing every year as a…
It is interesting to see that CRA used to refer to “abusive charity gifting tax schemes” and they appear to be lumping them in with fraud. “Meet Mary & William. Mary and William are a married couple with kids. They have…
The Tax Court of Canada recently released a decision where they dismissed the appeals of former spouses relating to reassessments under the Income Tax Act with respect to their alleged charitable donations made in 2003, 2004 and 2005. The Minister of…
A number of media outlets have reported that allegedly March of Dimes Canada has been hit with a $800,000 fraud over an 8 year period. Here is a report from consumer reporter Sean O’Shea. “Toronto woman charged in alleged defrauding of the…
CRA recently released a letter which discusses whether a gift of a share of the capital stock of a corporation to a public foundation to which subsection 118.1(5) applies after 2015, would qualify as an 'excepted gift' as defined in…
Mark Blumberg will be giving a presentation to the Planned Giving Counsel of Simcoe County on “Helping Clients Give to Good Causes“. The presentation is on December 1, 2015 which is Giving Tuesday. Here is a link: http://www.plannedgivingsimcoe.org/event/helping-clients-give-to-good-causes if you want to…
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has launched a quick public consultation on the Interpretative Note for Recommendation 8 which deals with non-profits and the risk of money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF). It is a very positive step that…
Canadians are rallying around and want to support Syrian refugees coming to Canada. Much of the support is coming from newly established grassroots groups working with registered charities to assist with the integration of Syrian refugees in Canada. The new…
The terrible events recently in Paris remind charities of the importance of ensuring that their resources are not used to support of terrorism. This applies to charities operating in Canada and also those who operate outside of Canada. Periodically charities should…
Corporations Canada has a new email address when filing documents through e-mail. This is particularly important for CNCA corporations. The e-mail address has been changed to IC.corporationscanada.IC@canada.ca. In the meantime, Corporations Canada still receives and accepts filings sent through the…
The Conservative loss in the 2015 Federal election and the Liberal majority government will have some impact on the Canadian charity sector. Here is my article What does the 2015 Federal election mean for Canadian charities?