Jun 2018 Charity & NFP Law Update
The CRA requires registered charities to file Form T3010, Registered Charity Information Return Charities (“T3010”) with six months of the end of each fiscal year. For charities with a fiscal year-end date of December 31st, this means that a T3010 will need to be filed by June 30th. In addition to the T3010, registered charities in Ontario must also submit at the same time either a Charities RC232WS – Director/Officer Worksheet and Ontario Corporations Information Act Annual Return (“RC232WS”), or a Charities RC232 – Ontario Corporations Information Act Annual Return Worksheet (“RC232”) with a Form T1235, Director/Trustees and Like Officials Worksheet (“T1235”).
The RC232WS and T1235 require charities to identify the dates when directors, trustees and like officials began and finished acting in these roles. This may raise complications where the directors, trustees and like officials have changed during the charity’s fiscal period, raising questions regarding which individuals to list, including whether charities should list directors, trustees and like officials serving at the charity’s year-end or at the time of filing.
For charities that file the T1235, the form states that “each director/trustee and like official who, at any time during the fiscal period of this return, was a member of the charity’s board of directors/trustees” must be listed on the form. This means that all individuals who were directors, officers or like officials at any point in time during the applicable fiscal year will need to be listed on the T1235. However, this is different for corporations filing RC232WS. Charities that file this form, rather than the T1235, must set out the required information for the corporation “as of the date of delivery.” Therefore, only those individuals who are directors, officers or like officials at the time of filing need to be included in the RC232WS.
Charities with a financial year end of December 31st that have yet to file their T3010 with the CRA are reminded of the upcoming June 30th deadline, and of the importance of filing on time. Given the above, it will be important for charities to consider how they report their directors, officers, and like officials for the purposes of the T1235 or RC232WS, as the listing of directors is public information and inaccurate T3010s are often an issue raised by CRA during audits of charities.