April 7, 2021
Centre for Inquiry Canada publishes report on “The Costs of Religion in Canada”
Someone sent me a link to a report from the Centre for Inquiry Canada entitled "The Costs of Religion in Canada". It is advocating for…
March 26, 2021
Canada now has 2 registered journalism organizations
Recently The Narwhal News Society was added as a registered journalism organization (RJO) and therefore along with La Presse Inc. there are now two…
March 23, 2021
Upcoming Webinars for the Canadian Charity Law Association
The Canadian Charity Law Association is delivering some upcoming webinars. Registration is free but space is limited. Topics are subject to change.…
March 16, 2021
Will changing structured arrangements into a reasonable person test help the charity sector? – Part 1 – The preamble
Recently a bill was proposed in the Senate -BILL S-222 An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (use of resources), which will eliminate the “own…
March 13, 2021
What happens when you make it too easy to become a charity?
The US largest organization representing non-profits, which has over 25,000 non-profit members, has called for the IRS to eliminate their Form…
February 19, 2021
Updated CRA Form AUT-01 Authorize a Representative for Offline Access from CRA for charities and others
CRA has published a newer version of Form AUT-01 Authorize a Representative for Offline Access in late December 2020. The Form AUT-01 can be used by…
February 15, 2021
CRA releases the Report on the Charities Program 2018 to 2020
The CRA recently released the Report on the Charities Program 2018 to 2020. If you are very interested in the charity sector in Canada you might find…
January 26, 2021
New Course – Should you agree to be a director or board member of a Canadian non-profit or registered charity?
There are over 600,000 directors of Canadian charities alone. There are many more people in Canada who serve on the boards of non-profits that are…
January 24, 2021
CBC “Pandemic tests limits of religious freedom as churches set to fight B.C.’s COVID-19 rules in court”
The CBC's Jason Proctor wrote an article today on "Pandemic tests limits of religious freedom as churches set to fight B.C.'s COVID-19 rules in…
January 2, 2021
La Presse Inc. is first registered journalism organization registered under new category of qualified donee
La Presse Inc. is now the first registered journalism organization registered under new category of qualified donee. You can see it listed here. As…
December 29, 2020
Some quick stats on the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (“CNCA”)
Did you know that there are: 31,462 active CNCA corporations (As of September 1st 2020) 3,364 incorporations last year alone: (Fiscal year…
December 29, 2020
Canadian charities can have relationships with non-charities but need to have adequate separation
We recently did a course entitled Multiple Corporate Structures for Canadian For-Profits, NPOs, + Charities to Enhance Flexibility and Impact.…
December 29, 2020
New Ontario Business Registry will one day become active and you should sign up now to get reminders and information
The Ontario Ministry of Government Services is launching a new Ontario Business Registry at some point over the next year or two. This Registry will…
December 20, 2020
Another version of CRA’s guidance on advancement of religion released in an access to information request
We have been blogging about CRA's draft guidance "Advancement of religion and charitable registration" in 2009, 2017 and 2018. Essentially CRA has…
December 20, 2020
Why does CRA ask about charitable “activities” and not just about charitable “purposes”
In a recent CRA document, we obtained that was released through access to information, it provides a good explanation of why CRA cares about…
December 20, 2020
CRA document “Purposes Not Being Furthered” dealing with charity applications without adequate information on activities
About 4000 groups apply each year to the Charities Directorate of CRA to receive registered charitable status and about 46% obtain that status. The…
November 30, 2020
CRA updates guidance CG-027, Public policy dialogue and development activities by charities – only minor changes
The CRA has updated their guidance CG-027, Public policy dialogue and development activities by charities. There were only minor changes to the…
November 27, 2020
CRA’s New Education Guidance – CG-030, Advancement of education and charitable registration
CRA issued a few new guidances today, including a guidance on the advancement of education: CG-030, Advancement of education and charitable…
November 27, 2020
CRA’s New Guidance – CG-029, Relief of Poverty and Charitable Registration
Today, CRA released it's new Guidance, CG-029, Relief of poverty and charitable registration. This relatively short guidance provides some useful…
November 27, 2020
CRA releases foreign activity guidance after multi-year delays as well as guidance on intermediaries working in Canada
CRA released today the updated guidance CG-002, Canadian registered charities carrying on activities outside Canada. Essentially, this guidance…
October 30, 2020
Capacity building, education, and online courses for the Canadian charity and non-profit sector
Our firm has been using online tools for over 10 years – primarily webinars. In 2018, we moved to providing paid online courses dealing with charity…
October 23, 2020
CRA Service standards for charities for 2020 – 2021
The CRA has service standards and the Charities Directorate publishes those service standards. The service standards are for "enquiries" and…
September 25, 2020
ONCA update but still don’t know when ONCA will be brought into force
[Update - the motion to extend the period within ONCA can be brought into force was carried on September 21, 2020.] As we have noted before,…
September 23, 2020
Now is the time to get onto CRA’s Digital Services for Charities
While restrictions are easing up and businesses are getting back to work, now is still a good time for registered charities to get on to CRA's new…