May 29, 2021
CRA increasingly emphasizing importance of separation between registered charities and non-qualified donees
In the last couple of weeks I have read two separate CRA notes on the importance of maintaining sufficient separation between a registered charity…
May 13, 2021
CRA adds new webinars dealing with registered charities and receipting over the next couple of weeks
CRA has announced new webinars dealing with registered charities and receipting. Here is a link. Here is the note from CRA: ……
May 7, 2021
CRA warns about tax shelter gifting schemes and the consequences of participating
CRA recently sent out an email entitled "Warning: Watch out for tax shelter gifting schemes". I am not sure if this is just regular communication or…
April 29, 2021
Successful finish for Blumbergs’ Canadian Charity Law Boot Camp 2021 (Online)
On April 21, 2021 we had our Blumbergs' Canadian Charity Law Boot Camp 2021. It is the second Boot Camp that we have conducted online and our tenth…
April 19, 2021
2021 Canadian Federal Budget – How will it affect the Canadian charitable sector?
A lot has changed in 2 years when the last Federal budget was delivered. Today, Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland introduced a Federal…
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…
April 4, 2021
“Cross-Border Philanthropy – A U.S. Perspective” by Eric Zolt – excellent paper
I just finished reading an excellent paper entitled Cross-Border Philanthropy - A U.S. Perspective by Eric Zolt. It both provides a good summary of…
March 28, 2021
Statistics Canada report on charitable donors in 2019
Stats Can recently released their Charitable Donors, 2019 report. I have been critical of StatsCan in the past for their annual reports on…
March 22, 2021
The Charities Directorate of CRA announces new webinars on gifting and receipting on March 30 and March 31.
Here is an announcement from CRA relating to new webinars dealing with gifting and receipting on March 30 and March 31, 2021. . Charities…
March 17, 2021
Will changing structured arrangements into a reasonable person test help the charity sector? – Part 4 – Charitable purposes and Conclusion
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 17, 2021
Will changing structured arrangements into a reasonable person test help the charity sector? – Part 3 – The Reasonable Person – lots of questions
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 17, 2021
Will changing structured arrangements into a reasonable person test help the charity sector? – Part 2 – The Main Provisions and various general concerns
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 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 16, 2021
Report #1 of the Advisory Committee on the Charitable Sector – more thoughts
After my very disappointing first read of the “Report #1 of the Advisory Committee on the Charitable Sector” which was just released last Friday here…
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 21, 2021
Revised P113 – Gifts and Income Tax 2020 – deals with tax benefits of donating to charities
2020 was a turbulent year. The CRA has updated their document P113 – Gifts and Income Tax for 2020. The P113 is a helpful guide to the tax…
February 19, 2021
Blumbergs’ Pre-Budget Submission for the Federal Budget 2021 relating to charities, transparency and other issues
As we noted previously the Federal Government has launched pre-budget consultations for the 2021 Federal Budget. Here is the Blumbergs' Pre-Budget…
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…
February 4, 2021
Canada adds 13 organizations to list of terrorist entities including Proud Boys, The Base and Al-Quaeda and ISIS affiliates
Canada just added 13 new listed terrorist organizations including the Proud Boys, Atomwaffen Division, the Base, and Russian Imperial Movement. They…
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 23, 2021
CRA provides additional information on foreign activities by Canadian charities
After years of seeing less and less transparency about registered charities in Canada coming from the CRA, for various reasons, we now have one…
January 14, 2021
Going the Extra Mile: The Liability of Foreignness in U.S. Foundation International Grantmaking to Local NGOs
I recently ran across a very good article entitled: "Going the Extra Mile: The Liability of Foreignness in U.S. Foundation International Grantmaking…
January 13, 2021
Blackbaud’s “Tax Receipting and the Top Compliance Issues for Canadian Charities” delivered by Mark Blumberg
Mark Blumberg will be delivering a webinar for Blackbaud on "Tax Receipting and the Top Compliance Issues for Canadian Charities". Here is further…