Charities – Articles Archives

By Mark S. Anshan October 17, 2014 was a critical date for federally incorporated not-for-profit corporations and charities.  That was the date by which corporations were required to adopt and file articles of continuance under the new Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act. Failure to have filed for continuance now places those corporations ...

By Alexandra Tzannidakis Various charities and non-profit organizations are eligible for a rebate on the sales tax they pay in the process of providing certain types of goods and services (“supplies”). This is called the Public Service Body rebate, and its percentage depends on the nature of the organization and ...

By Arthur B.C. Drache, CM, QC One of the most contentious pieces of legislation recently was a private member’s bill, Bill C-377, which required what we believe to be hugely intrusive public reporting by labour organizations. The legislation was so contentious that event the Senate, controlled by the Harper Conservatives, ...

By Adam Aptowitzer Planned giving has been an issue of interest to the charitable sector for several years. The enthusiasm by which the sector has taken up the discussion has permeated the donor community. As a result donations by will are a common occurrence. But if the donor does not ...

By C. Yvonne Chenier, QC  Now that we have a new federal government in Canada, one may wonder what they will do with the elephant in the room in the not for profit and charitable sector – social enterprise. As has been pointed out before in this newsletter and elsewhere, ...

By Tanya L. Carlton (Note: The following discussion is based on the common law and applies to all provinces except Québec, which is governed by the Civil Code of Québec). Employment agreements play an important role in any employer-employee relationship, even in charitable and not-for-profit organizations. Without a properly drafted ...

By Arthur B.C. Drache, CM, QC  The stunning majority mandate achieved by the Liberal party in the October 19 election means that there will be a lot of attention paid to promises made by the party during the election. While we mentioned these at various times in the past few issues, ...

By Adam Aptowitzer We have written recently about the proposed rules for donating the proceeds from the sale of real estate and private shares (click here to read it). While this provision is the response to much sensible lobbying by some parties in the sector it does not come without ...

By C. Yvonne Chenier, Q.C. The off and on clothing trend called “Matchy Matchy” is seen as wearing an outfit that goes together too well making it looked forced and stylish.  Something similar may very well be underway again at the Government of Canada with the Syria Emergency Relief Fund ...

By Tanya Carlton On September 17, 2015, the Ontario Ministry of Government and Consumer Services quietly posted an update on its website in regards to the implementation of the Not-for-Profit- Corporations Act, 2010 (“ONCA”), the new governing legislation for charities and not-for-profits incorporated in Ontario.  The ONCA has now been ...

By Mark S. Anshan The basic organizational elements that inform how for profits and non profits function, evaluate and improve their operations should essentially be the same. Non profits operate as “businesses” with many of the same attributes as for profit organizations – budgets, staffing, governance, planning, accountability to name ...

By Karen Cooper A recent decision of the Tax Court of Canada serves as a reminder that not all land is held by a donor on account of capital and that the tax consequences of a particular gift may not be obvious. In Staltari v. The Queen (2015 TCC 123), the ...

By Alexandra Tzannidakis During this year’s long-haul federal election campaign, the rules about charities’ involvement in political activities have been tested left and right. A major challenge to the interpretation of the rules came from the Green Party, who fought back against the exclusion of their leader, Elizabeth May, from ...

 By Alexandra Tzannidakis With a federal election coming up on October 19th and the unusually-long campaign period in full swing, the CRA has issued a reminder to registered charities about the restrictions on political activities. The main campaign period take-away is that partisan political activities are outright prohibited. The only ...

By Tanya L. Carlton On August 17, 2015 the Federal Court of Appeal released their decision in Humane Society of Canada for the Protection of Animals and the Environment v Minister of National Revenue (2015 FCA 178) which confirmed CRA’s decision to issue a Notice of Intention to Revoke (“NIR”) ...

By Adam Aptowitzer In its last annual budget, the Federal Government announced that proceeds from the sale of private company shares and real estate would be free from tax if donated to charity. That is pretty much all they said on the subject. Readers of our budget column will recall ...

 By Alexandra Tzannidakis  Government contracts and funding agreements can be golden eggs in the non-profit sector, promising a tempting level of income stability for NPOs and charities. Because of the public source of these funds, NPOs may have some nebulous ideas about the government being duty-bound to behave fairly or ...

 By Arthur B.C. Drache, CM, QC  We are getting more and more questions these days from museums, galleries and performing arts organizations[1] about what amount they can issue receipt for when they confer some benefit on donors? In most cases we find that the organizations err on the side of conservatism ...

 By Arthur B.C. Drache, CM, QC Anybody who works within the charitable world will be aware that the “relief of poverty” is one of the classic heads of charity and there are myriad cases which attempt to determine who is “poor”. But the issue can also arise very indirectly…which is what ...

By Alexandra Tzannidakis Anyone involved with a Canadian charity that operates internationally or sends funds abroad is probably intimately familiar with the considerable restrictions in this area. As with much of the law surrounding charities in Canada, the foreign activities rules are made up a small nucleus of actual statute ...

 By Mark S. Anshan In a series of articles here and here we discussed the importance of protecting a charity’s assets and organizing its activities to achieve maximum efficiency in operations and effectiveness in engaging with donors and volunteers. Long established charitable organizations sometimes find that they have a number ...

By Adam Aptowitzer As Counsel for Ms. Guindon in her case with the Minister of National Revenue we have kept our readers abreast of developments as the appeal wended its way to the Supreme Court of Canada. On July 31st, 2015 the Supreme Court issued its ruling in the matter ...

Under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (“AODA”) private or non-profit organizations with twenty or more employees are required to file accessibility compliance reports every three years, with the first report having been due December 31, 2014. Each report has questions tailored to an organization’s sector and size and ...

By C. Yvonne Chenier, QC The 2015 Canadian federal budget contained good news for the gift planning community. Much has been written about the anticipated results of the exemption from the capital gain tax when someone wants to donate their private company shares or real-estate. Although we can surmise from ...

By Tanya L. Carlton (Note: The following discussion is based on the common law and applies to all provinces except Québec, which is governed by the Civil Code of Québec). Many charities and not-for-profits, due to limited budgets, are unable to hire employees on a full-time or even part-time basis, ...