Books and Records for Charities: Part I (An Introduction) 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 to meet the […]
Credit Proofing Charity Assets 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 itself liable for damages […]
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 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 debated in the […]
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 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 Rio de Janeiro Brazil. Next […]
Credit Proofing Charity Assets Part II In last month’s newsletter we discussed the method of credit proofing a charity’s assets by incorporating separate corporations to hold different types of assets and operate discrete activities. A key element in organizing into separate corporations is to ensure that independence and authority are maintained while, at the same, […]
The CRA is making a list and you should check it twice Budget 2011 seems a long time ago, as does January 1, 2012 when some of propositions of that budget came into force. One of the interesting provisions that the charitable sector had lots of warning of but little details about was the pending […]
Collaborative Advocacy by Arthur Drache, C.M. Q.C. The vast majority of charities in Canada do not carry on advocacy or political activities. But that having been said, there is little doubt that there are some which would get involved if they had the resources to spare. Of course, the first thing that any charity would […]
Books and Records For Charities: Part III (What to Do about Missing Records) 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 last in a three-part series on what “books and records” means […]