January 2025 Poll

No. This is a headache for charities and there is no information right now to explain how this works now and in the future.  The excuse that it’s because charities were affected by the postal strike sounds hollow to me as I can’t recall the last time I received a donation, let alone any mail, that had a canceled stamp showing the date which is the date we’re supposed to use to determine the year the donation is in.  In fact, the number of times a donation was sent by mail since Covid is exactly one for our charity.  Donations are mostly done electronically with a tiny handful in cash.

Rather, this strikes me more of political move to make people think they’ll get a bigger return.  StatsCan shows that the average Canadian is not generous and does not make many, if any, charitable donations (https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1110013001). Extending the deadline won’t change that, especially when money is tight for many already. You’ve got to give money away to get money back.

By Cheryl Smith on January 09, 2025

No.  It creates more headaches than it solves, at least for small charities.  And the law won’t be changed until Parliament can sit again, which won’t be until March.  Anything postmarked by Dec 31/24 can be attributed to 2024 and there was plenty of time after Canada Post returned to operation to do that.  Our supporters found many other ways to get donations to us by year end.  Also, we send out one Official Tax Receipt for the whole year.  Will we have to wait until after Feb 28/25 to do that?  This was not well thought out and did not involve widespread consultation with Charities.  Another knee jerk reaction to not taking useful action in the first place.

By Colleen G on January 08, 2025

I agree with extending donations to Feb. 28!

By Bonnie GRAINGER on January 08, 2025

100%, our charities took a major hit with donations, not only with the Postal strike but our economy in general.
Canadians have been digging deep into their pockets for the last 18 months with high mortgage interest rates,  high groceries and inflation over all.
With some recovery on interest rate,  more affordable groceries, and Canada Post back in service. Our charities have time to market, and catch up for lost revenue.  Canadians are very generous, and will show their support with the additional time allowed.

By Ann Laurin on January 08, 2025

The govt has until that date for RRSP so why not this.

By marc seguin on January 07, 2025

Understandably appreciated by some, but yet another administrative headache for others. When did we forget how to keep things simple?

By Daniel on January 06, 2025

Yes, only because of the mail strike. If they don’t give the credit for the 2024 tax year people won’t donae until later in 2025 and the charities will not reach thir goals in 2024.

By JOHN BIRD on January 04, 2025

Most charities accept donations and provide electronic receipts.  Donations can be carried forward for 5 years enabling 2024 donations to be deducted up to 2029.  The mail strike should not be an adequate reason for this temporary tax change as there are alternatives to receiving receipts.

By Marilyn Sims on January 03, 2025

I would say no because there are many ways besides mail to send donations to the charities of choice.  There was enough coverage of the postal strike to let people know to find alternate ways to ensure their giving was on time.  Also, most charities run on a calendar year so their record keeping would be much more complicated if they were to include receipts given after the year end.

By Robert on January 03, 2025

Yes, Charities have suffered by not getting their annual mail request to their regular donors and cheques were not mailed to charities; I think it is fair for the charities to phone or email their regulars to get their normal end of year donations and fair to the taxpayer to make their end of year donations up to the end of February 2025.

By Anni on January 03, 2025

yes the more deduction one can make would be greatly beneificial

By Tammy Machan on January 03, 2025