An article in the Globe and Mail today described a proposal made
"behind closed doors" before a March 26 media event by
the Minister of National Revenue that would require charities to
provide lists of the donors to the Canada Revenue Agency (the
"CRA") to facilitate the matching of charitable donation
tax credit claims against such lists. The proposal was
apparently met with "stunned silence" (which doesn't
surprise us). An accompanying proposal to standardize the
"format, size and colour" of donation receipts was also
apparently made – in all likelihood, in an effort to combat
fraudulent donation receipting, which the CRA has identified as one
of the "top five tax scams in Canada". Whether
these proposed "proposals" will actually be made appears
to remain an open question, but charities will want to stay on top
of this as, should they come to pass, the compliance burden
associated with them will clearly present an issue to the
sector. In describing the potential proposals, the article
noted the government's focus on political activities undertaken
by charities and recent audits that appear to be targeting
them. Interestingly, the article states that fewer than one
per cent of the 86,000 registered charities in Canada report any
political activity, which certainly raises questions about the
government's focus on them.
The full article can be found here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/charities-may-be-asked-for-donor-lists-under-cra-proposal-floated-by-minister/article19734160/.
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