On a number of occasions, we have assembled a list of Canadian charities that had lost their registrations for cause.  We have now updated the list to August 2014.  This list contains over 5 years of information on charities deregistered as a result of audit, which used to be referred to as “for cause”.  This list does not include registered charities who were revoked for “failure to file” their annual return or asked for voluntary revocation or those that were revoked for the sole reason that they were corporately dissolved.

The information is taken directly from the CRA’s publicly accessible database.

CRA has recently added to their database for some of the revoked for cause charities a summary of the reason the registered charity lost its status and in those cases we have pasted in that information. Not all of the charities have such a summary. In addition, we have placed the names of the directors contained in the last T3010 Registered Charity Information Return filing that had directors listed and/or earlier T3010 filings.

The CRA previously described revoked for cause as:

Registration as a charity has been cancelled as the direct result of an audit. Generally, only the most severe cases of non-compliance, or cases where there is continuous non-compliance (despite attempts by the Charities Directorate to get offending charities on side), result in revocation for cause.

The CRA now describes “revoked as a result of an audit”:

Registration as a charity or Canadian amateur athletic association (CAAA) has been cancelled where, following an audit of their operations, it was determined that the charity or CAAA ceased to comply with the requirements for registration (other than failure to file). Generally, charities or CAAAs are revoked where there are severe cases of non-compliance or cases where there is continuous noncompliance.

The information in the T-3010s is based on filings by the registered charities and therefore there are no assurances that it is correct. The charity filing the information may have provided incorrect information and CRA may have incorrectly inputted the information. For the most up to date information see CRA’s database. The information here was pasted directly from the CRA database and if there are mistakes you can contact the CRA and advise them of the mistakes. The information in this document reflects what was on the CRA database at the time the information was taken.

CRA has the power to revoke Canadian charities. This is an important regulatory tool. It is important for the public to understand when CRA is using this tool and for what reason. For example, there has been significant discussion about the involvement of Canadian charities in political activities. It is interesting that only 1 Canadian charity has been revoked for that reason in the list. There are a large number of revocations for inappropriate receipting or failure to keep adequate books and records as well as other reasons.

If a charity is revoked for cause they can appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal which may set aside such revocation or they may accept some of the grounds for revocation and not others. There have been a large number of cases in the Federal Court of Appeal and we are not aware of one were the decision to revoke the status of Canadian charity for cause has been successfully challenged.

If you are interested in a particular charity you can request from the CRA copies of letters sent to a revoked for charity and often that will provide more information as to the reasons for revocation found in the summary. You can also contact the former charity directly and they may provide additional information.

Also some of the audit letters sent by CRA to certain registered charities are listed here.

Read full article: Canadian Registered Charities Recently Revoked by the Charities Directorate of CRA for Cause or As A Result of Audit – updated to August 2014