Ottawa, Ontario, February 8, 2013... The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)
will revoke the registration of The Voice of the Cerebral Palsied of
Greater Vancouver. The notice of revocation will be published in the Canada Gazette with an effective date of February 9, 2013.
The CRA issued a notice of intention to revoke the charitable
registration of The Voice of the Cerebral Palsied of Greater Vancouver,
in accordance with subsection 168(1) of the Income Tax Act,
which was subsequently appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal. The
appeal was withdrawn on October 25, 2012. The documents CRA filed to
court provided the following audit results:
With respect to the appellant’s failure to devote its resources the
[sic] charitable activities, the audit confirmed that in the period
under review approximately 93% of funds raised by a third party
fundraiser remained with those fundraisers with the appellant seeing a
return of only 7.5% of the amounts raised. The information returns filed
indicate the appellant devotes less than 50% of its annual gross income
to its own charitable activities. The audit found that the appellant
has devoted less than 15% of total income and less than 20% of total
tax-receipted income on its own charitable activities.
The residential building owned by the appellant has not been
accounted for by the appellant. The appellant allows the building to be
managed by the Voice of the Cerebral Housing Society [sic], which is not
a qualified donee. The appellant’s payment of rent to that Society
[sic] is a payment to a non-qualified donee.
A copy of the notice of intention to revoke and other letters
relating to the grounds for revocation are available to the public on
request, in the language they were originally written, by calling 1‑800‑267‑2384.
An organization that has had its registration as a charity revoked
can no longer issue donation receipts for income tax purposes and is no
longer a qualified donee under the Income Tax Act. The
organization is no longer exempt from income tax, unless it qualifies as
a non-profit organization, and it may be subject to a tax equal to the
full value of its remaining assets.
Registered charities have an obligation under the Income Tax Act
to devote their resources to charitable purposes and activities. The
CRA recognizes that charities may incur reasonable administrative and
fundraising expenditures in pursuit of their charitable programs.
However, when fundraising becomes a disproportionate focus rather than
pursuing charitable activities, or when fundraising expenditures become
unreasonable or unacceptable, charities may face consequences which
could include monetary penalties, the suspension of tax-receipting
privileges and/or the revocation of registered charitable status.
While most registered charities operate in a manner consistent with
the law, in cases of excessive fundraising the CRA will take appropriate
action. These situations are addressed on a case-by-case basis. The CRA
is also committed to broader sector education, for example the CRA
issued Guidance on Fundraising by Registered Charities to assist charities in understanding CRA’s expectations on fundraising activities and expenditures.
For more information about the registration of Canadian charities, go to the CRA’s Charities and Giving Web page at www.cra.gc.ca/charities.
Canada Revenue Agency
This a a reproduction copy of an official work that is published by the Government of Canada and that the reproduction has not been produced in affiliation with, or with the endorsement of the Government of Canada.
No comments:
Post a Comment