Announcement on Improvements to CRA Correspondence
On February 11, 2016, the Minister of National Revenue, Diane Lebouthillier, announced improvements in how CRA communicates with Canadians. Beginning in February 2016, CRA will send taxpayers simplified and easier-to-read Notices of Assessment with respect to their income tax and benefit returns. In July 2016, recipients will receive simplified Benefits Notices for family benefits and the GST/HST credit. Furthermore, CRA will make the majority of its correspondence, such as the Notices, available online through a service called My Account.
These changes come as a result of a review of international best practices, feedback from the public and extensive user-experience testing to ensure that the notices can be understood and used by Canadians with varying information needs. The content of more customized and technical correspondence with the public is scheduled for streamlining over the next two years.
Webpage with Questions and Answers about Making Donations
On February 9, 2016, CRA published a new webpage called Questions and answers about making donations, which provides information in response to frequently asked questions about making charitable donations. More specifically, the webpage provides information about how individuals can find out if a charity is registered, whether a charity has to give a receipt when it receives a donation, whether a charity can return a donation and whether a charity can lend its registration number to another organization so that it can give receipts. The Webpage also provides helpful responses to questions about receipting and information about how taxpayers can make complaints about charities and report charity fraud.
CRA Publishes Guide for Filling out Form T3010
On February 9, 2016, CRA published T4033 – Completing the Registered Charity Information Return (the “Guide”), which provides comprehensive information on how to fill out Form T3010, Registered Charity Information Return and Form TF725, Registered Charity Basic Information Sheet. It is targeted toward Canadian charities and national arts service organizations that are registered under the Income Tax Act (“ITA”) and are eligible to issue official donation receipts.
Under the ITA, every registered charity must file an information return each year. The return must be filed no later than six months after the end of the charity’s fiscal period. The Guide provides information about what must be included in a complete information return, where it is to be sent and how other correspondence is to be provided to CRA. The Guide also contains very specific information about how to fill out Form T3010, including line-by-line commentary on what information registered charities must provide to CRA to maintain registration and tax-exempt status.