{"id":17091,"date":"2014-05-08T15:51:42","date_gmt":"2014-05-08T19:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/?p=17091"},"modified":"2020-06-29T09:32:27","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T13:32:27","slug":"can-canadian-charities-engage-in-political-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/legal\/2014\/05\/08\/can-canadian-charities-engage-in-political-activities\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Canadian Charities Engage in Political Activities?"},"content":{"rendered":"

THIS POST HAS BEEN WRITTEN BY GUEST AUTHOR BARRY W. BUSSEY, VP-LEGAL AFFAIRS, CCCC.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Serving on the front lines of education, the advancement of religion, and the relief of poverty, charities have valuable insight and experience to contribute to public debate and the development of public policy.<\/p>\n

In light of this, you may be asking yourself:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cCan charities engage in political activities?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The answer is \u201cyes\u201d\u2014but only to a very limited extent expressly provided for in the Income Tax Act<\/em> (ITA<\/em>). Without following the ITA<\/em> provisions, a charity would jeopardize its charitable status by using its resources on political activities.<\/p>\n

Prohibited Political Activities for Charities<\/strong><\/p>\n

A charity cannot take part in partisan political activities, which means it cannot directly support or oppose a specific candidate or political party for public office. It is important that charities use neutral language in their communications. The CRA has clarified that, as long as a charity restricts its comments to the political party\u2019s policy, and does not explicitly connect its views to the political party, it would likely be carrying out a non-partisan political activity.<\/p>\n

Some of the examples CRA provides of prohibited political activities include<\/p>\n