The CRA Charities Directorate has published new resources that will be of interest to registered charities. These resources include a new self-assessment tool for political activities, and several video webinars on recent CRA guidance documents.
The political activities self-assessment tool is designed to help charities determine whether they are carrying on political activities (as defined for the purposes of charity law) and whether such activities are being conducted within the limits in the Act and CRA policy. The self-assessment tool takes the form of a series of questions that charities can ask themselves about their activities to determine their compliance with the rules on political activities. The questions reflect the information contained in CRA Policy Statement CPS-022, which sets out CRA’s policies on political activities. While the questionnaire does not address some of the more contentious issues related to the meaning of “political activities” and the calculation of resources devoted to these activities, the self-assessment tool is nonetheless helpful for charities as a first step to determine whether they are engaged in political activity. CRA has also released several webinars on some recently released CRA guidelines. These include webinars on the following topics:
- Arts activities and charitable registration
- Community economic development activities and charitable registration
- Completing Form T3010 (13), Registered charity information return
- Political activities
These videos provide summaries by CRA officials of CRA’s guidance on these issues. Charities engaged in activities to which these guidelines apply may wish to consult these videos for information on CRA’s policies.
