Charities Must Update Their Donation Receipts by March 31, 2019

Authored by Philip A.S. Milley, Associate Director, Legal Affairs

Last August the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”)  transitioned its website to a new domain: www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency.html. At that time we reported that charities were obligated, as a result of the changing CRA website address, to update their donation receipts to reflect the new domain. CRA has recently announced that charities have until March 31, 2019 to update their receipts to comply with the regulations. CRA has published new sample receipts to provide examples of how receipts should appear and advises charities to use the domain canada.ca/charities-giving.

Source of Obligation

Registered charities are obligated to create complete and accurate receipts. The source of this obligation is found in the Income Tax Act Regulation 3501(1)(j), which requires, among other things, that a donate receipt contain “the name and Internet website of the Canada Revenue Agency.” The “Canada.ca” domain will now act as the primary location of all Government of Canada websites, including the Charities Directorate now located at www.canada.ca/en/services/taxes/charities.html.

Impact on Charities

This is a minor change that charities should be able to affect with little effort. Charities should be reminded that they are expected to fully and technically comply with the income tax regulations when issuing receipts. Quite simply, incomplete is incorrect and is grounds for donation credits being disallowed. CCCC has a number of resources available to its members on how to comply with receipting obligations. You can access those resources here.