Charity Tax Tools Resources
Posted on | January 29, 2010 | No Comments
Earlier this week, Imagine Canada – an organization dedicated to supporting Canada’s charitable sector – launched the Charity Tax Tools website … a site with free information, tools and resources to help small-to-medium sized charities better understand how to meet Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requirements.
This couldn’t have come at a better time.
In 2007 – 2008, for instance, over 1,700 Canadian charities lost their charitable status for a multitude of reasons, including the failure to complete the required forms. Now, these organizations can no longer issue charitable receipts nor receive funding from charitable foundations, not to mention dealing with the public embarrassment and outrage of all this … that is, if they still exist.
I had the opportunity last fall to partner with a sister Community Futures organization in BC, as well as the BC Centre for Social Enterprise, to address this very issue … ensuring smaller charitable organizations and those working with such agencies (e.g. lawyers, accountants, etc.) understood some of the basic – yet vitally important – aspects of tax management and reporting requirements for CRA.
Smaller and rural charities, especially, face unique difficulties in their day-to-day operations.
They have few, if any, staff. Most volunteers aren’t interested in the administrative aspects of the organization, meaning important positions are often filled by individuals ‘taking their turn’ … but not necessarily by those with the skills needed to do the job. With smaller populations, they face difficulty recruiting and retaining new volunteers. And they may be geographically isolated, offering less opportunities to interact with other charities on best practices and experiences.
Yet through our regional charitable tax workshop, we found that these charities recognize and accept that they have a key role to play in protecting both their own and the sector’s integrity. Likewise, CRA has also made strides in adjusting their “one-size fits all” approach.
Through sites like Charity Tax Tools and related learning opportunities, the language of the CRA can be demystified, offering smaller and rural charities the chance to make their taxes less ‘taxing.’
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