Orchestras Canada

The Canada Revenue Agency has launched its latest initiative to support Canada’s donors and charitable sector: the Giving to Registered Charities 101 videocast series. The goal of this series is to inform young Canadians about how charities are regulated in Canada and how to donate wisely.

“By educating donors, we build confidence in the charitable sector as well as an appreciation for the work they do,” said Minister Ashfield. “It is important that donors of all ages be able to access the information they need to make informed donation decisions in a format they can understand. I invite you to view these videocasts by visiting ourdonors Web site or the CRA’s YouTube channel.”

The videocast series includes three individual videos:
“What’s it all about?” introduces individuals to how charities become registered in Canada.
“What’s in it for me?” shows individuals the important role that charities play in Canada and the tax incentives available to taxpayers.
“Where do I begin?” gives individuals the basic information they should know before donating to registered charities.

You can view the videos here.

Imagine Canada is presenting three Charity Tax Tools webinars this spring, designed to provide charities with the information they need to meet Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requirements. The webinars are free, they deal with issues often raised by charities – and we highly recommend them to you! (Although they are in English only.)

Webinar 1 – Tuesday, June 1, 2010 1:00pm EST: Fundraising Activities and CRA Guidelines

Presented by Terrance Carter, Managing Partner, Carters Professional Corporation

This Webinar will provide an overview of CRA’s new Guidance on Fundraising (CPS-028) and highlight how it impacts fundraising by charitable organizations. This presentation will provide practical information for use by Boards and staff on:
Background to the Guidance
Definitions of fundraising and charitable purposes
An overview of prohibited conduct
Guidelines for the allocation of fundraising expenses on the T3010B
A framework for the evaluation of your fundraising activities

Webinar 2 – Tuesday, June 15, 2010 1:00pm EST: Reporting: Filing the T3010B

Registered Charity Information Return, presented by Theresa L.M. Man, Partner, Carters Professional Corporation

Every registered charity must file Form T3010B with the CRA within 6 months of its year-end. If your charity does not file the return on time you may lose your charitable registration and incur penalties upon reapplying. This session reviews the various filing requirements, the information to be included with the return and related considerations. This session, however, is not a line-by-line review of the form itself.

Webinar 3 – Tuesday, June 22, 2010 1:00pm EST: Tax Receipting: Special Events and Split-receipting

Presented by Loris Giusto and James Johnston, KPMG Nonprofit Practice

When a donor makes a gift to your charity and receives something in return (for example, attendance at an event, or a gift recognition item), you may not be able to issue a receipt for the full amount, but can sometimes provide what is known as a “split receipt”. This session reviews the rules around split receipting, with a special focus on their application to special events. A number of practical examples will be discussed to illustrate these rules and common issues.

Our colleagues at Imagine Canada are keeping a close eye on Bill C-470, a Liberal Private Member’s Bill, introduced by the Hon. Albina Guarnieri, MP for Mississauga East – Cooksville.  As it’s described by Imagine in a recent communiqué, “the Bill seeks to enhance transparency in the charitable sector by requiring registered charities to provide the name, job title and annual compensation of the five executives or employees with the highest compensation. It also proposes to provide the Minister of National Revenue with the discretion to deregister any charity, private foundation or public foundation that paid any employee more than $250,000 annually in total compensation. This would, in essence, impose a cap on the salaries of leaders of charities in Canada.”

Key staff leaders at Imagine Canada have discussed the Bill with its author, Ms. Guarnieri, as well as with a number of parliamentarians from all parties in the House, affirming the charitable sector’s commitment to transparency, accountability and communication of impact to maintain and enhance donors’, funders’ and citizens’ trust in, and support for, the work of Canadian charities operating in communities across the country and around the world. They also “used these meetings to increase awareness among MPs about the problematic nature of the proposed salary cap and some of the unintended consequences of the Bill, including the fact that universities, hospitals, major cultural institutions and other charities that already have executive compensation levels well above $250,000 would have to deregister or risk non-compliance…The Bill is expected to next be debated in the House on April 19 at which time it will likely be referred to Committee. If it does go to Committee, Imagine Canada will ask to appear before the Committee. We are working with partner organizations in the sector to ensure consistent, clear and evidence-based messaging on this issue and will keep you apprised of developments as they unfold.”

Orchestras Canada has written to Imagine Canada, to express our support for their work in this area.  We’ll keep you posted.

Imagine Canada has recently launched a new, fully-bilingual Charity Tax Tools website, to provide Canadian charities with the information they need to meet Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requirements in the areas of  receipting, maintaining books and records, and reporting to the CRA. The website is particularly recommended for small and medium-sized charities, as well as the many legal and accounting advisers/practitioners who do not specialize in the sector, but nevertheless support charities.

You can find the website here.

The Skinny on the Stretch Tax Credit

On Wednesday, December 2, OC staff member Jennifer Caines took part in a SectorCast given by Imagine Canada regarding their proposal for a new Stretch Tax Credit—a recommendation that Orchestras Canada supported at the federal Standing Committee on Finance during this year’s pre-budget consultation process.

Here’s what Jennifer has to say:

“This hour-long presentation certainly made a believer out of me concerning the benefits of the Stretch Tax Credit for donors and not-for-profit organizations.

The Stretch Tax Credit is an innovative, made-in-Canada incentive to encourage increased charitable giving, public benefit, and civic participation. It proposes to stretch your tax benefit from 29% to 39% on new total giving between $200 and $10,000, over the previous highest level of personal giving. In Imagine Canada’s proposal, 2008 would be used as a base level to compare future donations.

Despite an increase in overall donations, the number of Canadian tax-filers claiming donations has been in decline—meaning that a smaller proportion of Canadians are giving more. The Stretch Tax Credit is an effort to address middle-income donors and to encourage them to increase their giving.  Research shows that half of donors would increase their giving if there were better incentives – and increased giving will help charities of all sizes, in communities of all sizes.  Given the diversity of our membership, I can really see why Orchestras Canada supports this initiative.

After the SectorCast presentation, there was time allotted for questions. Here were, for me, the most interesting questions and answers:

Q. How much will this tax credit cost?

A.  Of course the benefit/cost ratio is dependent on new donations, but Imagine Canada calculates that if Canadians responded in Year 1 by increasing their giving by $200 million, the incremental cost to government would be $20 million.  That’s a 10:1 return on investment.

Q.  Why not increase the tax credit from 29% to 39% for all donations, all the time?

A.  While Imagine Canada believes that implementation of this incentive would be a net benefit for Canadian communities, they recognize that incentives are only part of the picture – and that access to an increased tax credit should not be an entitlement.

The Stretch Tax Credit creates an incentive to change donor behaviour, to ensure that the level of donations is always going up. The only way to get the increased tax credit is to keep giving more. Donors benefit from increased tax benefits, while Canadian charities gain security through increased funding. “

To access Imagine Canada’s stretch tax credit tool-kit, please visit here.

We’ve got two recommendations this week – one serious, and one fun.

First, the serious recommendation.  Imagine Canada‘s Nonprofit Risk Management Centre has launched an excellent series of monthly columns by experts dealing with common risk management issues in not for profit organizations, with recent articles on such topics as quorum, voting protocols, employment issues and fraud.  In short, they’re sobering – and very real – topics.  You can find out more here.

Second, just for fun:

Erstwhile Regina Symphony Executive Director Natasha Bood (now on maternity leave) directed us to a blog posting on the New York Times website – which we enjoyed so much, we read the rest of the blog content as well!  We especially enjoyed Alvin Curran‘s Oh Brass on the Grass Alas.  The blog is entitled The Score, and the Times describes it thus:

In The Score, composers discuss their work and the issues involved in creating music in the 21st century. The writers offer an inside look at this large and continually evolving branch of American culture, in which the traditional notion of the “classical” continues to be reconsidered, revised, rejected and reimagined.

You can find the blog here.

We’re acutely aware that flu season starts at about the same time as most Canadian orchestras seasons open:  and with Flu Season 2009 being a particular concern, we will draw your attention to the following page of resource links collated by the thoughtful people of Imagine Canada’s Non-Profit Risk Management group.  It contains everything from a pandemic planning template, to guidelines on implementing tele-commuting initiatives, to links to helpful government websites.  And it’s regularly updated, too.

You can find it here.