Antler River Watershed Regional Council

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Charities and giving - What's new
THE CANADA REVENUE AGENCY IS RESUMING ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES IN SEPTEMBER: WHAT CHARITIES NEED TO KNOW
Due to the Government's ongoing efforts to support Canadians through the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) suspended many audit, collections and compliance activities, and committed to resuming them in a thoughtful and phased manner.
The CRA is now gradually resuming additional activities, and may need to contact Canadian charities with a specific call to action. However, you should be aware of scammers pretending to be CRA employees. They often call Canadians to try to trick them into paying fake debts, and may even contact you by email, letter, or text message.
To protect yourself from scams, it's important to know when and how the CRA might contact you. Here is some information on the CRA's activities that are resuming and tips on how to recognize when the CRA is trying to contact you and your organization.
WHAT WE'RE DOING
Starting in September, the following CRA programs will be resuming additional business activities, which may affect your charity or organization:
Charity registration applications
The CRA is ramping up the review of charity registration applications.
Before applying, organizations seeking to provide pandemic relief programs should consider donating or offering services to existing registered charities that have the experience, resources, and infrastructure already in place to respond to the needs of Canadians. However, if an organization wants to apply for registered charity status in order to respond to the pandemic, we ask that these organizations apply online for registered charity status.
Many organizations that have already applied are requesting expedited review of their applications. We understand that many organizations are providing critical services within their communities at this time and are in need of access to funding and the ability to issue official donation receipts.
Although the CRA has resumed the review of digital and paper-based applications, due to continued precautions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CRA's ability to meet published service standards in regard to paper-based applications has been impacted and delays can be expected. We recommend submitting your application and supporting documentation using our digital services to help reduce any delays. As we resume more activities over the next few months, our ability to meet service standards should improve.
Charity revocations
The CRA will begin processing revocations for failure to comply with the requirements of charity registration. Your charity may receive a letter by registered mail explaining the reasons why we intend to revoke your charity's registration. The letter will also include your objection and appeal rights.
Outreach activities
Outreach activities will continue but will follow physical distancing guidelines when necessary. Some of these activities include:
free virtual tax clinics
meetings with our outreach officers
the Charities Education Program (CEP)
You can request a CRA outreach session. Traditionally available in-person, our outreach sessions are now available over the phone, where possible by completing an online request for an information session. You may also receive a call from the CRA for a CEP virtual visit.
Audits
The CRA's Charities Directorate will also being contacting charities to:
resume ongoing charity audits
begin Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy post-payment audits
begin new audits to address highest risk areas
Errors found during an audit may not result in a re-assessment, but rather an information review with the charity, and be revisited for correction in future years.
T3010 FILING DEADLINE EXTENDED FOR CHARITIES
We remind you that the filing deadline has been extended to December 31, 2020 for all charities with a Form T3010, Registered Charity Information Return due between, March 18, 2020 and December 31, 2020. We encourage you to file early to avoid any delays.
HOW WE'RE SERVING CANADIANS IN THEIR TIME OF NEED
The CRA has a dedicated and highly skilled workforce committed to serving Canadians during their time of need. We are ensuring our efforts to sustain the tax system and many social programs it supports do not create undue burdens or financial hardship for Canadians as we work diligently to introduce measures to aid in the recovery of the economy.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
We thank you all for your patience as we navigate through this situation together. To learn more about the CRA's return to business activities, go to CRA and COVID-19: Resuming business activities.
STAY CONNECTED
To receive updates on what is new at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), you can:
Like the CRA on Facebook.
Follow the CRA on Twitter - @CanRevAgency.
Follow the CRA on LinkedIn.
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Add our RSS feeds to your feed reader.
Watch our tax-related videos on YouTube.
Charities Directorate Canada Revenue Agency Government of Canada Ottawa ON K1A 0L5 Canada
For telephone, fax, and TTY (teletypewriter) numbers, go to Contact the Charities Directorate.
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