{"id":22308,"date":"2016-06-17T14:11:01","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T18:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/?p=22308"},"modified":"2016-06-17T14:11:01","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T18:11:01","slug":"international-structuring-for-social-impact-qa-with-robert-hayhoe-miller-thomson-llp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/legal\/2016\/06\/17\/international-structuring-for-social-impact-qa-with-robert-hayhoe-miller-thomson-llp\/","title":{"rendered":"International Structuring for Social Impact: Q&A with Robert Hayhoe, Miller Thomson LLP"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a charity law partner with Miller Thomson LLP in Toronto, Robert Hayhoe advises and\u00a0represents charities and not-for- profit organizations on a national and international basis.\u00a0International structuring for social impact is a topic that Robert frequently addresses. In this\u00a0guest post, Robert answers six of the most commonly asked questions about international\u00a0structuring for social impact.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n How are Canadian charities that do international work structured typically?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    There are a wide variety of structures that Canadian charities working internationally\u00a0can use to fund activities. All of these structures are subject to the following limits:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Funds of the Canadian charity have to somehow be spent on the Canadian charity\u2019s activities not on grants to foreign charities;<\/li>\n
    2. The Canadian Charity must direct and control its activities (those activities that it funds);<\/li>\n
    3. The Canadian charity has to receive reports on its funded activities and keep records on them in Canada.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      <\/p>\n

      \n With these limitations in mind, Canadian charities fund foreign activities by hiring employees or covering volunteer expenses, appointing foreign agents (often foreign charities), hiring foreign contractors (sometimes foreign charities), entering into joint ventures with foreign charities, or by purchasing goods that are by nature charitable and giving them to a foreign charity for use or distribution.\n<\/p>\n

      \n Canadian charities that are part of international networks must be careful to ensure\u00a0that they are seen to maintain enough independence in their governance to allow\u00a0them to prove that they direct and control their own activities.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    4. How can charities restructure themselves to increase their social impact,\u00a0locally, nationally and internationally?<\/strong>\n

      \n I believe that Canadian charities should first decide how they would organize\u00a0themselves absent Canadian tax law and only then try to apply Canadian tax law. As\u00a0lawyers, we have informed views on structure but we are only advisors. Our real job\u00a0is to advise our clients in ways that help them meet their goals.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    5. What common concerns does the CRA have with respect to charities doing\u00a0international work?<\/strong>\n

      \n The CRA worries that Canadian charities are being used simply as conduits to allow\u00a0Canadian charity funds to be transferred to foreign charities, or even to individuals\u00a0connected to those charities. In some contexts (not generally ones involving the\u00a0members of the Canadian Council of Christian Charities), the CRA worries that\u00a0Canadian charities are being used as fronts for terrorism funding.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    6. What tax advice does the Social Impact Group have for Canadian charities\u00a0working internationally? *<\/strong>\n

      \n Our experience is that almost all international structures can be run in a manner\u00a0consistent with the Canadian tax rules. At the same time, all international structures\u00a0can be run in a way that is inconsistent with the Canadian tax rules. Our advice is\u00a0that having devised a funding and activities approach that complies with the tax rules,\u00a0the charity must follow it. Having taken advice on a structure, a charity that does not\u00a0follow it will be viewed by CRA as having decided wilfully to ignore its tax obligations.
      \n As a process, we ask our clients how they would like to organize their international\u00a0activities, funding and relationships absent Canadian tax law. Once we understand a\u00a0charity\u2019s goals, we are then in a position to give advice that best accomplishes the\u00a0goals.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    7. What is an \u201cintermediary,\u201d and what do Canadian charities need to know about\u00a0them?<\/strong>\n

      \n The CRA speaks about \u201cintermediaries\u201d as short hand for foreign entities that are\u00a0hired in one of the ways described earlier. Canadian charities need to keep in mind\u00a0the need to not simply give money to intermediaries, but to instead adopt\u00a0intermediaries\u2019 charitable activities.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

    8. We hear the term often, but is there really such a thing as an \u201cinternational\u00a0charity\u201d?<\/strong>\n

      \n Other than UN entities like UNICEF, there is no such thing as a real international\u00a0charity that can accept Canadian donations. Tax rules in almost all jurisdictions\u00a0restrict tax recognition of donations to gifts to domestically incorporated and\u00a0registered charities. Charities that we sometimes think about as international are\u00a0really combinations of separate charities from each country in which funds are raised\u00a0and from many countries in which programs are carried out. In many countries, these\u00a0separate charities are able to be controlled tightly by a central charity in some other\u00a0country. The Canadian rules do not permit this. Canadian tax law requires a much\u00a0greater degree of independence from its charities than do virtually any other\u00a0developed country.\n<\/p>\n

      \n Canadian charities that are part of international networks (that may see themselves\u00a0as an international charity) are often outliers that cause headaches for the rest of the\u00a0charities in their networks. However, our experience is that it is almost always\u00a0possible to fit a desired governance and funding model into the Canadian rules in a\u00a0way that does not destroy the desired model.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \"RobertRobert Hayhoe<\/strong> is a charity law partner with Miller Thomson LLP in Toronto, advising\u00a0and representing charities and not-for- profit organizations on a national and\u00a0international basis. He is recognized by Lexpert and Best Lawyers as a leading\u00a0Canadian Charity and Not-for- Profit law practitioner. Robert is the co-author\u00a0of\u00a0Charities Taxation, Policy and Practise and a frequent presenter.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      As a charity law partner with Miller Thomson LLP in Toronto, Robert Hayhoe advises and\u00a0represents charities and not-for- profit organizations on a national and international basis.\u00a0International structuring for social impact is a topic that Robert frequently addresses. In this\u00a0guest post, Robert answers six of the most commonly asked questions about… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ts_fic_featured_image_caption":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-22308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22308"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=22308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}