The CRA has announced the date and time of the 2011 Charities Information Sessions that CRA is offering.
Here is a CRA note on what is a qualified donee. If you are involved with governance or management of a charity it is important to understand what is a qualified donee because registered charities can make gifts to qualified donees but registered charities cannot make gifts to “non-qualified donees”. If a registered charity makes a gift to a non-qualified donee it could faces penalties and revocation. After the CRA guidance below I have placed a link to some helpful resources that relate to qualified donees that are working with groups that are not qualified donees in both Canada and also abroad.
The Charities Directorate on August 15, 2011 put out a note CG-008 - Confidentiality – Public Information Guidance which discusses the circumstances in which the CRA can divulge information about a charity. What most people don’t realize is that the confidentiality provisions of the Income Tax Act (s. 241) preclude CRA from disclosing almost anything about a charity other than the application and T3010 public filings until after such charity has been revoked. So for example in the extreme case if a charity is involved with a $500 million dollar fraud CRA is forbidden to say anything until after revocation which could be years afterwards. There are only a small number of charities doing really bad things and I personally believe that the public has a right to know more about these few charities. The interesting thing is that the situation is even worse with non-profits that are not registered charities who we can find out almost no publicly accessible information. So here is the CRA note on the charity confidentiality provisions and at the bottom is a Pre-Budget Submission from our law firm to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance dealing with the issue of transparency.
The CRA has just issued a revised guidance on “Donation of Gift Certificates or Gift Cards Guidance”. This guidance replaces Policy Statement CPS-018, Donations of Gift Certificates. Gift certificates and gift cards are frequently donated to charities but can the charity issue a tax receipt? Well it depends.
The CRA on August 22, 2011 published their Guidance CG-011, Promotion of Animal Welfare and Charitable Registration. CRA had completed and public consultation and here is the revised guidance.
The Globe and Mail published an article yesterday “Lawyers targeted over charity tax schemes”.
The Dept. of Finance has released some Legislative Proposals Relating to the ITA on August 16, 2011. These proposals deal with implementing the June 2011 budget proposals which include a number of proposals to prevent abuse of charities and RCAAAs.
Here is a CRA letter on whether amount paid by Canadian estate to a U.S. charity is a gift to a qualified donee in a particular situation. It deals with an estate of a deceased who wished to have the estate pay out pay out “amounts for the benefit of the lifetime financial support for his cryopreservation”.
Here is a CRA letter on whether a particular cooperative in Canada is tax exempt under s.149(1)(l) of the Act
AFP will be putting on an Ethics & Accountability Workshop: “Weaving Ethics into Your Fundraising” on September 8 in Toronto. Here is more information
Blog Feed
If you require legal advice with respect to Canadian or Ontario non-profits or charities please contact Mark Blumberg at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or at 416-361-1982 x237 www.canadiancharitylaw.ca