Canadian donations are far more than that which is claimed by taxpayers on their returns

Here is a list of the amounts of donations claimed by donors on their Canadian tax forms.  We have lamented, especially the 2006 year, when there was over $1.3 billion in abusive charity gifting tax schemes claimed that these were not real donations.   However, the bigger story is not those who claim amounts they are not entitled to – but the many Canadians who don’t claim any or all of their receipted donations.  Here is a list of the years and the amounts claimed by Canadian individuals on their income tax returns.  It goes from $4.2 billion in 1997 to $9.5 billion in 2017.  Just to provide some context in 2017 Canadian registered charities issued over $18 billion in official donation receipts, even though only $9.5 billion were claimed on individual tax returns.

For more analysis on these numbers see Stats Can releases information on charitable donations and it is as meaningless as always