CRTs are alive and well in Canada. at least at the CRA Rulings Directorate Over the past decade there have been many positive changes relating to the tax treatment of charitable donations such as the full capital gain exemption with regard to publicly traded securities. These changes, by all accounts, have resulted in increased donations […]
To Each Their Own: Look Out for Different Provincial Regimes By Adam Aptowitzer Those running a charity could be forgiven for thinking that there are no provincial rules which apply specifically to charities. In fact, this is not the case and we have written several times about such laws as the fundraising rules in Alberta […]
Visual Artists Granted Leave to Supreme Court Getting to the Supreme Court of Canada is no easy feat, so we took notice of the Court’s recent announcement that they have granted Canada’s professional visual artists leave to appeal.[1] The case stems from a complaint filed pursuant the Status of the Artist Act (the “Act”)[2] by […]
Adhering to Gift Terms By Arthur Drache, C.M. Q.C. Virtually every major gift to a charity carries with it some level of terms, most commonly with regard to the use. The more valuable the gift the more likely that the gift agreement will spell out in great detail the terms of use. When one makes […]
How Not to Choose a Charity: The Folly of Overhead Ratios To the ongoing despair of the non-profit sector, the number one criterion that potential donors use in selecting a charity continues to be the ominous “overhead ratio”. In the face of all the information available to them about their options, donors tend to zero […]
Death and Taxes May Be Inevitable, But Does It Have To Be So Complicated? by Adam Aptowitzer We have written before (several times in fact) of the great untapped potential in the donation of shares of private companies to charity. That there is great value in private companies is evident in their title as the […]
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 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 from Corporations Canada, […]
Fitting a Square Peg into a Round Hole 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 law to ensure that their […]
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 […]