Sept 2018 Charity & NFP Law Update
As reported in Charity & NFP Law Bulletin No. 425 last month, the issue of charities engaging in political activities has been brought to the forefront through the Ontario Superior Court of Justice’s July 16, 2018 decision in Canada Without Poverty v AG Canada (“CWP Decision”) (now under appeal) and the government’s subsequent August 15, 2018 announcement that it would be clarifying the rules governing political activities. These clarifications included proposed changes to the Income Tax Act (“ITA”) that were consistent with Recommendation No. 3 of the Report of the Consultation Panel on the Political Activities of Charities (“Consultation Report”), which was published on May 4, 2017.
Following up on that announcement, the Department of Finance Canada released a draft proposal of legislative amendments (“Draft Proposal”) for public consultation on September 14, 2018. The Draft Proposal, among other things, proposes to remove the quantitative limits for charities on non-partisan political activities from the ITA. This Charity & NFP Law Bulletin provides an overview of the Draft Proposal and discusses the future of political activities under the ITA.
For the balance of this Bulletin, please see Charity & NFP Law Bulletin No. 428.