New Consultations: Modernizing Tax Rules for Charities

As the last remnants of a scrumptious Thanksgiving weekend subside, it is appropriate to take a look at the health and issues surrounding the charitable sector in Canada.  Serendipitously, the federal government is seeking your views on how the tax rules for registered charities and the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) administration of these rules could be modernized.  A new consultation was launched on October 8 and here’s what the government wants to know, by December 3, 2026:

CRA has applied a net-worth assessment against your client, who now comes to you for help . . . and they are emotional and scared. What do you do first?

The most recent economic data is indeed atrocious, as Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz predicted in England late last year.

Last week’s KBR reported on a recent Statistics Canada study, Changes in Debt and Assets of Canadian Families, 1999 to 2012, that confirmed a trend that Canadians are carrying more debt than ever before.

There are three certainties in life – death, taxes and change.  So, dealing with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) can prove a stressful interaction for both taxpayers and their advisors.  

David Christianson, one of Canada’s Top 50 Wealth Advisors and this month’s featured guest speaker at DAW, says tax or financial advisors have the obligation to make critical conversations about what really matters our clients in the future, happen.

Canada’s tax system is based on self-assessment, but CRA has substantial powers and latitude to assess and reassess those returns as it sees fit, leaving the onus to prove otherwise with the taxpayer.