April 23, 2019
CRA’s Charities Education Program Letter
In December 2017, CRA introduced a new program, the Charities Education Program ("CEP") which is aimed at helping charities comply with the…
April 23, 2019
Canadian Charity Legal Checklist by Mark Blumberg – April 2019
Here is our new Canadian Charity Legal Checklist. For those who are interested in reviewing legal compliance for their registered charity,…
April 23, 2019
Recent Dept of Finance Report on Federal Tax Expenditures 2019 is worth taking a look at
The Federal Department of Finance has recently released its Report on Federal Tax Expenditures: Concepts, Estimates and Evaluations 2019. For…
April 22, 2019
CFA Society of Toronto 2019 Wealth Conference
I will be speaking at the CFA Society of Toronto 2019 Wealth Conference on May 1, 2019 dealing with the topic "Professional Advisors and…
March 31, 2019
OBA Charity and Not-for-Profit Law Section and Young Lawyers Division Program
Adam Greco and Mark Blumberg will be speaking on April 5, 2019 at the OBA Charity Law Primer of the Charity and Not-for-Profit-Law Section/…
March 28, 2019
CRA letter on amalgmation of registered charity and non-profit
Here is a redacted Advanced Income Tax Ruling Request response from CRA, dealing with the amalgamation of a registered charity and a non-profit.…
March 28, 2019
CRA tweaks to their guidance on registered charities carrying out activities outside of Canada
The CRA's Guidance Canadian registered charities carrying out activities outside Canada indicates it was revised on January 29, 2019. …
March 28, 2019
CRA announces upcoming changes to the T3010 and T2050, removing Political Activities
On March 15, 2019, CRA announced that there will be changes to the T3010 Annual Return and the T2050 Application to Register a Charity to account for…
March 25, 2019
Blumbergs’ International Philanthropy Conference 2019 (SOLD OUT)
We are pleased to announce that we will be holding a full-day event on international philanthropy on April 12, 2019: Blumbergs' International…
March 25, 2019
Blumbergs’ Canadian Charity Law Boot Camp 2019 (SOLD OUT)
The Blumbergs' Canadian Charity Law Boot Camp will be held again on Monday April 8, 2019. This is a one-day boot camp on compliance and…
March 19, 2019
Canadian Federal Budget 2019 and its impact on non-profits and charities
Finance Minister Morneau delivered the 2019 Federal Budget today. Here is our article "2019 Canadian Federal Budget - How will it affect the…
March 16, 2019
Closing religious institutions in Canada due to shrinking congregations and rising maintenance costs
There was an interesting story on the CBC entitled "From sacred to secular: Canada set to lose 9,000 churches, warns national heritage group". it is…
March 13, 2019
US’s College Admission Scandal involves American Charitable Foundation
There has been a lot of coverage of the college admission scandal in the United States, in which many celebrities and wealthy executives paid…
March 8, 2019
Good news on charity compliance education from CRA – the ‘Road Shows’ are coming back!
The CRA announced today a number of different matters including "The Government is providing up to $5.3 million in new funding over the…
March 8, 2019
CRA Minister Responds to changes in Political Activities of Charities
Today CRA has released the Minister of National Revenue's response to the recent changes on Political Activities by Canadian registered…
March 8, 2019
Minister of National Revenue press release on the Advisory Committee on the Charitable Sector (ACCS)
The Minister of National Revenue, the Honourable Diane Lebouthillier put out a news release on March 7, 2019 dealing the new Advisory…
March 3, 2019
Registered Charities and CRA Charity Audits
The Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) Charities Directorate is the de facto regulator of Registered Charities in Canada and they audit between 600 and…
March 2, 2019
SNC-Lavalin Affair and the Charity Sector
The SNC-Lavalin affair has been in the news for a while. Here is an article on how this SNC-Lavalin scandal relates to the charity sector.
February 27, 2019
BC Bodner Estate Case – yes an estate can give to a list of charities and non-profits
An interesting little case in BC called Bodner Estate. Irene Bodna died and left about 8m to 24 different registered charities and…
February 27, 2019
T3010 and political activities – changes are coming
The CRA recently posted on their T3010 page that "In December 2018, the rules governing the political activities of registered charities changed as a…
February 27, 2019
CRA letter on rebate donation program
Here is the text of a recent CRA letter on a rebate donation program and whether donors can claim a tax deduction. Not surprisingly CRA was not…
February 27, 2019
Kaul v. The Queen – Tax Court of Canada and appraisal of FMV when gifting scheme
In the Tax Court of Canada case Kaul v. The Queen, CRA denied certain claims for tax credits relating to an art donation scheme. The taxpayers…
February 27, 2019
CRA releases Q&A on public policy dialogue and development activities by charities
The CRA recently released a question and answer document on the December 2018 political activity changes and the new guidance on public policy…
February 27, 2019
CRA updates info sheet “How a Charity Completes Its GST/HST Return”
The CRA has recently updated its info sheet "How a Charity Completes Its GST/HST Return". Here is the CRA document.