Feb 2023 Charity & NFP Law Update
The Supreme Court of Canada, in a one sentence judgment dated February 2, 2023, dismissed Human Concern International’s (“HCI”) application for leave to appeal from the March 2, 2022 judgment of the Federal Court of Appeal. As reported in the March 2022 Charity & NFP Law Update, the CRA initiated an audit of HCI in 2014, concluded that HCI was involved in making false charitable tax receipts, and therefore imposed a one-year suspension of HCI’s ability to issue charitable receipts. HCI objected to the conclusions that the CRA reached and applied to the Tax Court of Canada for a postponement of the suspension. The Tax Court of Canada dismissed this application. Upon appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal, that court concluded that HCI had not raised any error that warranted its intervention.
With the dismissal of the application for leave to appeal by the Supreme Court of Canada, the courts have again demonstrated that charities may face an uphill battle in requesting a court to postpone the application of a penalty imposed by the CRA.