Today the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) released its much anticipated report on Tax Incentives for Charitable Giving in Canada. The report discuss “Charitable Donations and Donors in Canada”, “The Regulation of Charities”, “Tax Incentives and their…
The Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency has announced the revocation of The Voice of the Cerebral Palsied of Greater Vancouver as a charity for allegedly high fundraising costs while using a third party fundraiser. The press release is…
In this article entitled “Atheist Activist Group Sues IRS Over ‘Preferential Treatment of Churches’” in the Christian News Network it discusses the exemption that churches having to filing the US form 990 and how one group is challenging that preferential…
Here is an interesting article entitled “Watchdog Cracks Down on Misleading Statements on Fundraising Costs” Watchdog Cracks Down on Misleading Statements on Fundraising Costs
Here is an important article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy outlining an initiative to try and have charities electronically file their annual returns in the US and have this information more easily accessible online at no charge. Although Canadian charities…
Vancouver Sun investigative reporter David Baines has just written a followup article entitled “Vancouver museum’s “Michelangelo” sculptures fail to sell at auction”. In this article he discusses how the valuations of the sculptures exaggerated their fair market value and how…
The Tax Court of Canada has denied more charitable donation receipts because they did not have all the mandatory elements. The judge also was concerned that the cash ‘donations’ may never have in fact taken place. Here is a link…
The UK is dealing with a scandal right now called The Cup Trust. It involves a complicated scheme to get money refunded through the Gift Aid system. I thought this quote is interesting “Margaret Hodge MP, Labour chairwoman of the…
Here is my article on the new Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (“ONCA”) that I prepared for the Ontario Trillium Foundation blog The main Ontario Trillium Foundation blog is at: For those who are not familiar with OTF it…
Here are comments from the Association of Fundraising Professionals on the Private Members Bill of Mr. Peter Braid, MP from Kitchener-Waterloo. The AFP expresses some concern about the part of the Bill which would change the deadline for donations to…
It is actually quite hard to find out how to get on the CRA newsletter (EML) list. Our firm’s charity law newsletter is far better than the CRA newsletter – our newsletter has all the info from CRA and a…
I missed this article by Vancouver Sun columnist David Baines last summer entitled “Baines: Couple who cheated tax department suffer litany of woes: Chartered accountant Martin Johnson and estranged wife Celia Martin failed to declare fees earned on art donation”. …
The T3010 is a great resource on the Canadian charity sector. We recently reviewed the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return database for 2011 as part of the Sean Blumberg Transparency Project. The database covers 82,848 of the approximately 86,000 registered…
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It is interesting to note the amount of attention The Cup Trust scheme is receiving in the UK. Members of Parliament are all over it. The media is covering it. There are all sorts of recriminations about who is responsible…
The Charity Commission of England and Wales has put out a statement on a major scheme involving UK Gift Aid. From a Canadian perspective it is interesting to see the Charity Commission dealing with this sort of abuse. In Canada,…
They note: “Charity donated £55,000 while its investors claimed £46m in gift aid -For a charity attracting more donations than the British Heart Foundation, The Cup Trust’s website is a paltry affair. A single 100-word webpage baldly states that it…
The Hamilton Spectator in an article entitled “Redeemer settles $6-million lawsuit with families” is reporting that Redeemer University College has made a payout to settle a lawsuit over receipts it issued as part of a forgiveable loan program. Here is…
For many Canadian non-profits under the CNCA it is easier to file the annual return online. This can now be done at the Industry Canada’s Online Filing Centre. Here is a link to Industry Canada’s Online Filing Centre. If…
In the case of Glooscap Heritage Society v. The Queen, a charity had its charitable status revoked for improperly issuing tax receipts and operating for the benefit of a tax shelter. The Charity filed an objection to the revocation and…
The Charities Directorate has released a new T3010 (13) Registered Charity Information Return for Canadian registered charities with fiscal year ends after January 1, 2013. The changes on the T3010 (13) are basically more questions about the political activities of…
The Vancouver Sun has recently written an article “Blockbuster donation of ‘Michelangelo’ sculptures turns into multi-million-dollar bust: Sotheby’s says tiny terracotta sculptures are worth $200,000 to $300,000, a fraction of their appraised value”. The article discusses the valuation of certain…
The Charity Commission notes that the Guidance “explains trustees’ duty to prevent their charity being used to promote extremist views or terrorist ideology. The toolkit also suggests steps trustees can take to minimise risks associated with particular activities, such as…
Canada Helps is looking for a new President/CEO. It is an important organization for the sector and here is the position profile President CEO – CanadaHelps