The CRTC recently updated their FAQs to include a discussion of an exemption related to Canadian registered charities. If a commercial electronic message (CEM) sent by a Canadian registered charity has the “primary purpose” of raising funds for the charity…
We have just released the Blumbergs’ Snapshot of the Canadian Charity Sector 2012. The Canadian charity sector has grown again. The Canadian charity sector is a vital part of Canadian society and economy with revenue of over $223 billion and expenditures of…
CRTC has recently released its “Guidelines to help businesses develop corporate compliance programs”. The CRTC is quite tentative in their Guidelines. This we know. The Guidelines are not legal advice, they are guidance and they “may” help facilitate legal…
CRA recently released a letter which discusses whether an employee will realize a taxable benefit if the employee opts to forego a non-cash gift valued over $500 that he or she is otherwise entitled to and directs the employer to…
CRA recently released a letter which discusses whether the transfer of the custody of a fossil to a qualified donee can be considered a charitable gift. CRA concluded that this would be a question of both fact and law but…
CRA recently released a letter which discusses whether the donation of a conservation easement by a landowner would be considered a gift for tax purposes. CRA provided general comments on ecological gifts. CRA provides that for a donation of land…
I never thought I would live to see the day. Yes a popular magazine has a story that revolves around the T2050 – Application to Register a Charity Under the Income Tax Act. Now Magazine has an article entitled “Men’s…
Remittances from Canada are important. Remittances are defined by Wikipedia as “A remittance is a transfer of money by a foreign worker to an individual in his or her home country.” Some of those countries are developing world countries…
On July 1, 2014 Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) will come into force. Here is a brief article describing some of the key points of CASL and how it will impact Canadian charities. For further information on CASL you might find…
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance has released a press release encouraging Canadian to share pre-budget proposals on six key themes. Here is a link to the news release and below is the text: “NEWS RELEASE CANADIANS…
With the Toronto Star covering the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada there has been a media focus on the issue of overhead and how to select good charities. For example Sean O’Shea did this piece for GlobalNews entitled “Donating money?…
The Ontario Ministry has provided an update on their website with respect to the Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, 2010 (“ONCA”) under 'ONCA: Frequently Asked Questions” which indicates that the ONCA is not expected to come into force before 2016. Initially there…
In Narul Hassan vs. The Queen it is another false receipting case. “It appears almost certain that this program involved a fraud on the Canadian tax system, and therefore on the Canadian public. It is not clear to me…
In The Queen's Speech 2014 it notes the introduction of a bill to protect charities. Here is a quote from The Queen's Speech 2014: Draft Protection of Charities Bill The purpose of the draft Bill is to: Create a…
CRA has appealed the decision of David, R. et al. v. The Queen (TCC) to the Federal Court of Appeal. This case involved six separate appeals with respect to the disallowance of a tax credit by CRA for a purported…
On May 29, 2014 the Supreme Court of Canada denied leave to appeal in Neville v. National Foundation for Christian Leadership. It was an application for leave to appeal the decision of the BCCA in January 2014. Here is original…
On May 14, 2014, Alberta's Bill 12 – Statutes Amendment Act, 2014 received Royal Assent (it has not yet come into force). The Alberta Societies Act which governs many not-for-profit corporations in Alberta is one of the statutes that was…
CRA recently released a letter which discusses whether cash prizes awarded to Olympic athletes should be taxed. CRA stated that a cash prize does not qualify as a prescribed prize and provided the following comments: “However, under the Income Tax…
On October 15, 2014 the Blumbergs Charity Law Institute will be held in Toronto.
The Kathryn Kossow v. Her Majesty The Queen application for leave to appeal was dismissed with costs by the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) on May 15, 2014. The Federal Court of Appeal released its adverse decision against the taxpayers in December 2013.…
Anecdotally, it feels like the charity application process has become harder. We have before published stats on the registrations of Canadian registered charities by the Determinations section of the Charity Directorate and so I thought I would crunch some numbers.…
The Office of the Auditor General of Canada has just released a report on a number of topics including “Aggressive Tax Planning“. The report is interesting and provides some additional information on a number of points. Although generally positive…
Here is a blurb from the ONN May E-bulletin: “Just how many nonprofits?! It's amazing the number of calls and emails we received about this first-ever list of nonprofits in Ontario. What we know: there are 59,605 registered not-for-profit…
Here is a note from the New Zealand Charities Services, which is a branch of the Department of Internal Affairs. It describes an interesting meeting held in Australia between different charity regulators including the Charities Directorate. International Charities Regulators’ meeting…