STAY OF EXECUTION: A PRECEDENTIAL WIN FOR A CHARITY AT THE FEDERAL COURT OF APPEAL by Adam Aptowitzer The charities community is well aware that the Canada Revenue Agency works to shut down charities it feels are deserving of such a punishment. In some circumstances, notably, but not exclusively, with respect to charities involved in […]
Tick Tock: It’s Time to Continue By Joel Secter October marks one year to the deadline for corporations incorporated under Part II of the Canada Corporations Act (CCA) to transition to the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (CNCA). This should come as no surprise; the CNCA came into force in 2011. Yet according to data obtained […]
Fitting a Square Peg into a Round Hole by C. Yvonne Chenier, Q.C. Anyone who has submitted a T2050 application for charitable status and has been rejected by the Canada Revenue Agency Charities Directorate knows the process can be quite frustrating. We spend hours with our clients to fine tune their documents and research the […]
Donations to a Non-Profit By Arthur Drache, C.M. Q.C. A recently published letter by the CRA[1] deals with the treatment of “donations” to a non-profit organization.clearly distinct from a donation to a registered charity. The discussion may be of particular interest to non-profits which are of considerable size and which have offices or other physical […]
Books and Records for Charities: Part I (An Introduction) 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 first in a series on what “books and records” means and how […]
Credit Proofing Charity Assets by Mark S. Anshan Most charities and not for profit organizations are incorporated as non share capital corporations. These corporations are considered separate legal entities from their members or directors. This ‘separateness’ protects the members (and to a large extent directors) from being personally liable in the event the organization finds […]
Litigating Human Rights Cases Held not to be Charitable in England By Arthur Drache, C.M. Q.C. Over the years we have regularly criticized both the CRA and the Federal Court of Appeal for what we consider to be their too restrictive view of political activities.[1] We often have cited the more “liberal” approach of the […]
New Resources to Help Ontario Non-Profits By Joel Secter As corporations incorporated under Part II of the Canada Corporations Act (CCA) come to within one year of the October 17, 2014 deadline to continue under the new Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (CNCA), amendments to Ontario’s new Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, 2010 (ONCA) are still to be […]
Indian Experiment Would Have Interesting Implications in Canada by Adam Aptowitzer One of the advantages of being part of the commonwealth is that we share commonalities in methods of taxation and governance with a variety of different countries. So when one of these countries experiments with a different way of doing things we should examine […]
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE – THE MOVEMENT By C. Yvonne Chenier, Q.C. In October I attended the Sixth Annual Social Enterprise World Forum in my home town of Calgary. Over a thousand enthusiasts from dozens of countries were also there. Past world forums were held in Edinburgh Scotland, Melbourne Australia, San Francisco USA, Johannesburg South Africa and […]