Got Your Digital Subscriptions? There’s a New Tax Deduction

Evelyn Jacks

Here’s a social distancing tax tip:  convert your in-person newspaper delivery into a digital subscription.  If you do, you’ll receive a new tax credit on the 2020 tax return. Here are the details:

Personal Income Tax Credit for Digital News Subscriptions: Effective after 2019 and before 2025.  Individuals will be eligible to claim a non-refundable tax credit for 15% of up to $500 paid for eligible digital news subscriptions in the tax year. An eligible digital news subscription is a subscription that allows the taxpayer access to content provided in digital form by a Qualified Canadian Journalist Organization (QCJO) that is primarily engaged in the production of written content. Where the subscription includes content not in digital format, the claim may not exceed the cost of a comparable digital-only subscription. Where there is no comparable subscription, only 50% of the cost may be claimed.This credit may be split between taxpayers.

There is other news relating to the support of Qualified Canadian Journalism Organizations:

Qualified Donee Status: Effective January 1, 2020. Qualified Canadian Journalism Organizations (QCJO) may register to become qualified donees— which means that they can issue tax receipts for donations to their organizations. To qualify, these organizations:

• Must be a corporation or a trust that have purposes exclusively related to journalism
• Will not be permitted to distribute their profits
• Will be required to have a board of directors or trustees, each of which at arm’s length with the others
• Must not be controlled by one person or a group of related persons
• Must not receive more than 20% of its gifts or donations from any one source (except bequests and one-time gifts to establish the organization

In these difficult times, be sure to support your favorite news outlet digitally. 

More good news: Knowledge Bureau Report is free!  Be sure to recommend it to your friends and colleagues. They can subscribe here. 

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