March 22, 2009

CRA’s Factors that will prevent an organization from being registered as a charity

CRA just put out a easy to read and understand list of “Factors that will prevent an organization from being registered as a charity”.  Perhaps CRA put out this list because with 4000 new organizations putting in applications every year to become registered charities, some of whom are not understanding what a charity is or restrictions on the activities of a charity, they wanted to make it clearer what will not qualify and hopefully they will receive better applications, or fewer, and this will reduce the backlog.  I think however that the list has an even more important purpose. 

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March 20, 2009

Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act - Fourth Time Lucky? Will Canada get a new fed corporate law?

The Canadian parliament is once again considering passing the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act.  If it is passed it will affect 19,000 Canadian federal corporations that are incorporated under federal law.  The Bill is currently in the Industry, Science and Technology Committee. 

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March 18, 2009

Canadian National Avoid a Charity Scam Day

For those interested in celebrating National Avoid a Charity Scam Day you might find this interesting.

Charity Scams in Canada - Costing Us All A Lot

Here is some statistical information on Charity Scams - Costing Us All A Lot.  Just to give some perspective far more funds flow to charity tax avoidance schemes in Canada than to all the money spent by Canadian charities on relieving poverty in the developing world!! 

March 17, 2009

Tax Havens Cause Poverty

If you are interested in assisting reduce or eliminate extreme poverty and you want more than writing a cheque to fix a symptom of a problem then you might find this note interesting.  Various groups have highlighted the importance of tax havens in undermining foreign governments in their development work by being a mechanism by which the wealthy can avoid paying taxes.  What does government in Canada provide to us?  Schools, hospitals, universities, social safety net, police.  Imagine what Canada would look like if we had almost no tax revenue.  Within a decade or two there would be no schools, hospital, universities, social safety net, police etc. 

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March 10, 2009

Canadian Charities

There are over 83,500 Canadian registered charities.  If you want to find out about a registered charity the first place to look is the CRA’s website to see if they are registered and their T3010 Registered Charity Information Return at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/chrts/menu-eng.html  Google also provides often useful information.  The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and Vancouver Sun have also written interesting articles on the charity sector.  Canadiancharitylaw.ca has information on the legal requirements and ethical standards for Canadian registered charities at http://www.canadiancharitylaw.ca.  CharityVillage has lots of information on jobs within the charity sector as well as articles on different charity related subjects at http://www.charityvillage.com  If you want to donate to any Canadian charity online, even if they do not have a website, you can do so through http://www.canadahelps.org