By Alexandra Tzannidakis The CRA’s Charities Directorate continually develops and updates a variety of policies and guidance for public consumption that are presumably predicated on their own internal policies. It has an extensive list of policies available online that are aimed at registered charities, voluntary sector professionals, and (according to its website) its own officers. […]
Annulment Offers Second Life to Charity
By Arthur B.C. Drache, CM, QC Revocation is not the only way that charities can lose their registered status. The following comes from the web site of an organization which was a registered charity called Dying With Dignity: Dying with Dignity Canada (“DWD Canada”)has learned it will lose its registered charity status as the […]
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 know what the tax consequence […]
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 January 1, 2012. These provisions […]
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 encourage charities to disclose any […]
Fighting the Wrong Battles
By Adam Aptowitzer The firestorm of media attention which has resulted from the Conservative changes to funding for political activity is astonishing given the relatively small impact of these changes. More to the point the media almost never comments on changes affecting the sector, even when those changes are both expansive and arguably unconstitutional. One […]
Stuff the CRA Says
By C. Yvonne Chenier, Q.C. I have kept a file, with various CRA communications, that I call “Stuff the CRA says” ever since my colleague Adam Aptowitzer got a laugh with a somewhat saltier version of the same line at a slide presentation given to fellow lawyers at a continuing legal education seminar in Alberta. I […]
Google and CRA Q and A
GOOGLE AND CRA QUESTION AND ANSWER by: C. Yvonne Chenier, Q.C. Q: What do Google and the CRA Charities Directorate have in common? A: They both have “quick view”. In the case of Google, quick view is a snapshot of actual pages that could be downloaded. In the case of the CRA Charities Directorate it […]
Tough Ruling in Non-Profit Distribution to Members
Tough Ruling in Non-Profit Distribution to Members By Arthur Drache C.M., Q.C. A recent ruling letter[1] from the CRA takes a fairly hard line on the distribution to members, a position which in our view can certainly be disputed. The following is the fact situation. A non-profit organization provides, among other services, internet services to […]
Accumulation of Profits in a Non-Profit Organization
Accumulation of Profits in a Non-Profit Organization By Arthur Drache A ruling letter released by the CRA at the end of 2012[1] offers some pithy comments on the situation where a non-profit organization has accumulated significant surpluses. The document has been so redacted vis a vis the factual background that details are sketchy but the […]