Finance Canada Begins 30-Day Consultation on Income Tax Act Amendments

Finance Canada has released a 30-day consultation on the draft legislative proposals to the Income Tax Act. The Government of Canada is following through on the August 15th announcement to amend the Act. These changes are intended to be consistent with Recommendation 3 of the Report of the Consultation Panel on the Political Activities of Charities, and acts as a response to the recent judicial ruling.

The draft legislative proposals would remove the quantitative limits (often referred to as the “10% rule”) on political activities under the Act. Under the draft legislative proposals, charities would still be required to operate for exclusively charitable purposes and the restrictions against partisan political activities would remain.

Canada Revenue Agency will soon release administrative guidance to the charitable sector on how it would implement the legislative proposals. The government intends to introduce legislation following the consultation period.

Have your say! Send your comments on the draft legislative proposal to fin.charity-bienfaisance.fin@canada.ca by October 13, 2018.

CCVO will continue to provide updates on any legislative changes to the Act.