Books and Records for Charities: Part II (How to Actually Keep Records)
By Alexandra Tzannidakis The failure to maintain books and records is ground for suspension of a charity’s tax-receipting privileges. Such a suspension can translate into the loss of big donations. This article is the second in a series on what “books and records” means and how to meet the requirements. Part ...
Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act (AODA)
Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act (AODA) By Mark S. Anshan In June 2005, the Ontario Legislature adopted the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), which established standards for people with disabilities to receive goods and services from companies and organizations. The Act and its regulations ...
Alberta Bound
Alberta Bound? By C. Yvonne Chenier, Q.C. On September 22, 2014, amendments to the Alberta Societies Act that we have previously alerted our readers to were proclaimed in force. New sections 36.2 and 36.3 now allow certain not-for-profit organizations to either continue from other jurisdictions into Alberta or continue from ...
CRA puts Federally-Incorporated Charities on Notice
CRA puts Federally-Incorporated Charities on Notice By Joel Secter In September, we received a number of inquires from charities that received alarming letters from the Canada Revenue Agency’s Charities Directorate with regard to keeping their registered charity status under the Income Tax Act. Apparently, in anticipation of the October 17th ...
Ineligible Individuals
Ineligible Individuals By Tanya L Carlton Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) recently released a new guidance on Ineligible Individuals (CG-024). The Income Tax Act (ITA) provisions around whether or not someone is an ineligible individual came into force on January 1, 2014, and the charities sector has been waiting for ...
CNCA TIDBITS
CNCA Tidbits Karen J. Cooper With the arrival of the deadline of October 17, 2014, the date by which federal corporations must continue under the new Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (“CNCA”), if a federal corporation has not continued all is not lost but corporations should be continuing as soon as ...
New CRA Ruling on Making Loans to Foundations
New CRA Ruling on Making Loans to Foundations By Alexandra Tzannidakis, LL.B. In July of this year, the CRA issued a ruling around making loans to charitable foundations. The ruling was requested by a taxable corporation that had set up its own foundation, a registered charity. The corporation wanted to ...
Spousal Sharing of Charitable Tax Deductions Goes From Policy to Law
By Alexandra Tzannidakis The 2014 Budget proposals have started to take real legislative shape. On August 29th, the Department of Finance released draft legislative proposals for consultation. The proposals mostly affect various aspects of personal, business, and international taxation, but there is also an interesting change being made to the charitable ...
Directors’ Liabilities under the CNCA
By Tanya Carlton In June 2014, I discussed the issue of Director’s and Officers’ duties under the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (“CNCA”). Another important aspect that volunteers should be aware of when they serve on Boards of either charities or not-for-profits (“NPOs”) is the personal liability that can arise in ...
Access to Members’ Personal Information
By Joel Secter The Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (CNCA) requires federal non-share capital corporations to prepare and maintain records including, among other things, a register of members, directors and officers. This should be familiar to corporations originally established under Part II of the Canada Corporations Act because it also required ...
New CRA Guidance on Ineligible Individuals
By Arthur Drache C.M., Q.C. At the end of August, the CRA published a lengthy Guidance (36 printed pages) dealing with its views on who are ineligible individuals under the charity provisions of the Income Tax Act.1 The ineligible individual provisions in the Income Tax Act came into force on ...
Preparing for the “Big If”
By Adam Aptowitzer It is one of the more interesting aspects of practicing law that allows lawyers to consider the situation when two laws designed for different purposes intersect. Sometimes these differences can cause difficulties but when used creatively they, at times, can be the key to solving difficult problems ...
Charity How-To: What to do when Faced with an Issue of Non-Compliance
By Tanya Carleton When a charity becomes aware that it has been non-compliant with either the Income Tax Act or the common law, it can cause great anxiety within the organization. According to the CRA, however, most non-compliance issues are “unintentional, accidental, and often of low material consequence,” and they ...
Charity Board Responsibility
By Mark S. Anshan In following several not-for-profit and charity mailing lists, I have noticed there are discussions taking place among individuals serving as directors of charities and foundations expressing concerns about governance and apparent lack of proper controls and accountability. With news of charities coming under review and being ...
Artists Triumph in Supreme Court
By Joel Secter Canadian visual artists celebrated on Sparks Street in Ottawa after their appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was allowed from the bench on May 14, 2014.1 They have been embroiled in a legal dispute with the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) since negotiation of a scale ...
NPOs’ Internal Procedures are Subject to Judicial Review
NPOs’ Internal Procedures are Subject to Judicial Review By Alexandra Tzannidakis Within the microcosm of a not-for-profit organization, where internal bylaws and rules are generated and enforced by the organization itself, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that there is always an external source of recourse ...
Ontario Budget Would Hit Higher Income Donors
By Arthur B. C. Drache, C.M., Q.C. As most readers will be aware, Ontario recently underwent a provincial election when it became clear that the Budget brought down on May 1 would be defeated, causing Premier Kathleen Wynne to pull the plug and call for the vote on June 12 ...
Not-for Profits Should Be Doing Some Strategic Thinking
By Adam Aptowitzer Typically, because charities are subject to so much regulation and not-for-profits comparatively little, most focus from the sector tends to fall on the former. However, there are changes both recent and expected that not-for-profits should be planning for. The first and most obvious change is the new ...
The Case of the Disappearing Agent
By Adam Aptowitzer It is not often that the charities community can take instruction from a GST case of the Tax Court, especially when the taxpayer is a numbered company. But the recent case of 2253787 Ontario Inc. v. The Queen1 is an important commentary on the law of agency, ...
Another Cautionary Reminder
By Arthur B. C Drache Over the years, one of our themes has been the need to take steps to protect an organization’s assets even from the possible depredations of employees and volunteers. While no single step can offer complete protection, one of the most basic protective approaches is to ...
The Evolving Law of Charitable Gifts
By Alexandra Tzannidakis, LL.B. The lack of a statutory definition of a “gift” has created ongoing problems between taxpayers and the Canada Revenue Agency in regards to charitable donation tax receipts. Ultimately, the various disputes that arise are settled by the courts, who in the process fulfil their common law ...
The Alberta Advantage
By: C. Yvonne Chenier In typical majority government style (at least in Alberta) the PC Government brought in surprise and fast changes that will affect the non-profit sector in Alberta and even elsewhere in Canada. Bill 12 the Statutes Amendment Act, 2014, was introduced in the waning moments of the 2014 ...
ONCA: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
By Joel Secter The Ontario election called for June 12th has delayed proclamation of the Ontario Not-for-profit Corporations Act, 2010 (ONCA) yet again. You may recall a previous update when we reported that the ONCA could not come into force until a series of technical amendments to it and a multitude of ...
HST and Sponsorships for Charities
By Karen J. Cooper Charities are often unsure whether soliciting and accepting corporate sponsorships requires them to collect and remit HST, similar to the for-profit sector. The following article discusses how HST affects charities, and specifically how HST affects charities that solicit sponsorship money. It is important to note from ...
Directors’ and Officers’ Duties under the CNCA
By Tanya Carlton Many individuals throughout Canada volunteer their time on the Boards of either charities or not-for-profits (“NPOs”) without realizing the duties imposed on them as a result of their position within the organization. Before accepting a position with a federally incorporated organization, individuals should ensure they know what ...