Public Information on Charities
Transparency is the buzz word of the year. Increasingly, people want more information on charities. This a good time to pause to consider what information is publicly available. The Income Tax Act provides that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) can...
NPO Update
Over the past few months, CRA has released several documents commenting on the rules under the Income Tax Act that apply to non-profit organizations (NPOs). We have reported in past issues of this Newsletter on CRA’s increasingly strict interpretation of...
Clergy Residence Deduction Update
CRA has recently released two technical interpretations concerning eligibility for the clergy residence deduction under the Income Tax Act. In the first one, dated February 1, 2011, CRA was asked to opine on whether the taxpayer qualified as a member...
Are Charities Inadvertently Acting as Mortgage Brokers or Administrators?
Ever since Anglo-Saxon times, lenders have advanced money on the security of land. Although some of the more exotic mortgage derivatives dreamt up by Wall Street may be new, plain old mortgages have been around for as long as there...
Budget 2011 Re-Released
On June 6, 2011, the Minister of Finance re-introduced the 2011 federal Budget. The Budget was originally released on March 22, 2011, but was not passed due to the dissolution of Parliament and the subsequent election. The updated Budget includes...
CRA Releases Guidance on Use of Intermediaries Within Canada
On June 20, 2011, CRA released Guidance CG-004 Using an Intermediary to Carry out a Charity’s Activities within Canada. This Guidance is intended to complement CRA’s previously-released Guidance CG-002, Canadian Registered Charities Carrying out Activities Outside of Canada, on which...
Refusing Membership
The recent decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Re London Humane Society serves as a useful reminder to charities, not-for-profits, and their directors about the rules and considerations applicable to a decision to change membership policies and...
Do Employees Have Privacy Rights on Their Employers’ Computers?
The recent Ontario Court of Appeal decision, R. v. Cole, addressed the issue of an employee’s expectation of privacy on an employer’s laptop computer. At first glance, this decision appears to have far-reaching implications for an employer’s right to monitor...
Facility Use Policies and Agreements for Religious Organizations and Other Charities
Charities often receive requests from businesses, individuals and other charitable and non-profit organizations to use their facilities. Financially this makes sense, particularly if rental income can be generated from facilities that are underutilized by the charities themselves. In doing so,...
When Do Naming Rights Constitute an Advantage?
Where a donor makes a significant gift to a charity, it is not uncommon for the donor to request, or the charity to offer, naming privileges in connection with the gift. This often consists of naming a building, or portion...
