Non-Profit Organizations and the Income Accumulation Minefield Under section 149(1)(l) of the Income Tax Act, entities that meet the definition of a “non-profit organization” (NPO) are exempt from paying federal income tax. The section defines an NPO as a club, society or association that is not a charity but is organized and operated exclusively for […]
If They Were So Prescient, How Come They Did Not See That Coming? By Adam Aptowitzer On May 1st, 2013 the Federal Court of Appeal issued its judgment in the Prescient Foundation[1]. The case itself was notable not simply because of the decisions rendered by the Court on the questions in issue, but also (and […]
Getting on Board with the CNCA You may have heard this already, but apparently it bears repeating: All charities and non-profit organizations incorporated under Part II of the Canada Corporations Act need to actively ‘continue’ to the new Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act if they wish to stay in business. The new Act came into force […]
Membership is About Control Though we advise charities and non-profits at all stages in their evolution, we typically get involved in the start-up phase. At the start up phase we often recommend incorporation, most notably because of the limited liability protection it provides. Our discussions with clients invariably lead to the roles of directors and […]
Good For The Goose, But Not Apparently For The Gander For the last few years all registered Canadian charities have had to list compensation information on Schedule 3 of their T3010 registered charity information return. Not only is the total compensation amount for all employees shown, charities have had to list specific compensation information for […]
Personal Political Activity By Arthur Drache, C.M. Q.C. About eighteen months ago David Suzuki, the high profile environmentalist, did a video endorsing the Ontario Liberal government’s environment policies during a the provincial election. Questions were raised as to whether this somehow would be translated into “political activity” by the Suzuki Foundation.a charge made by another […]
CRA HELPS CANADIAN FIND THE “RIGHT” CHARITY In 2012 the Canada Revenue Agency, Charities Directorate created “quick view”, a graphic display of the information presented by a charity on their annual T3010 form. Now, in 2013 the CRA is tweeting about and otherwise promoting the existence of this quick view presentation of information. Social media […]
Residential Condos as Non-Profits By Arthur Drache, C.M. Q.C. In the past year or so there have been some concerns expressed as a result of some CRA Technical Interpretations[1] about whether certain corporations qualify as non-profit corporations under paragraph 149 (1)(l) of the Income Tax Act.the potential implication being that perhaps the might be taxable […]
Dealing with Fraudulent Donations There is a great deal of information available for individuals on how to avoid donating to a fraudulent or otherwise problematic charity. But the donor-donee relationship goes two ways: what happens when a charity receives a donation that turns out to be fraudulent in some way? You may have heard of […]
Working Around Ban on Ex Officio Directors A complication that arises under the new Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (the “Act”) is that it does not permit ex officio directors.[1] A director is ex officio when appointed to a board by virtue of holding another office or position. Such directors are excluded by subsection 128(3) of […]