April 1st is coming up.  What should the Charities Directorate of CRA do??

April 1st is April Fools Day.  There is so much craziness in the Canadian charity sector right now that you can either ignore it, or laugh or cry.  I thought that CRA may want to get into the tradition of putting out something funny on April 1st so that we can laugh together instead of crying. 

I apologize if the Charities Directorate has been doing this already and I just did not notice. Anyway if anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them.  For those who are not familiar with April Fools, Wikipedia once again comes to the rescue: “April Fools’ Day or All Fools’ Day, although not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, family members, enemies, and neighbors, or sending them on fool’s errand, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible.”  Just in case you did not think we had many gullible people in Canada, about 175,000 people are being audited for “investing” in abusive charitable donation tax avoidance schemes!  People who were passionate about avoiding taxes are going to be paying the taxes, plus substantial interest and penalties to government and substantial sums to their professional advisors, who in some cases had suggested they invest in the schemes.  CRA also now has a list of which individuals it should probably focus on for audit over the next 5-10 years.