Merci.
My name is Margaret Mason. I am a lawyer in Vancouver but I'm here representing the Canadian Association of Gift Planners, an organization that supports philanthropy by assisting donors with structured gifts. There are about 1,300 members from across Canada, the majority of whom work in charities themselves, and the balance of whom are related professionals, lawyers, accountants, and that sort of thing.
You have a presentation in front of you. There are three recommendations that we are making to you today. The first relates to the charitable remainder trust. This has been an ongoing initiative. In 2003 the CAGP-ACPDP met with Ministry of Finance and the Canada Revenue Agency. The ministry and the agency were both supportive of the proposal regarding charitable remainder trusts and are of the view that it's a valid type of giving and would enhance charitable giving in Canada.
In 2003 the association was asked to develop a proposal, which we did, and further, we've provided some updated material to the Ministry of Finance regarding the required changes to the Income Tax Act. This would require very minimal changes to the act and, we believe, would enhance giving. We can do it, but we are shoehorning it into the current provisions of the act, and I do know that it is supported by the ministry.
This would allow a donor who is 65 years or older now to make a gift and receive a charitable receipt now for the capital that will eventually end up with a charity, but to retain a life income during their lifetime. It's a way for an older person not to have to look after their investment, to protect it from the vagaries of, in British Columbia, the Wills Variation Act and those types of challenges to wills, and to enhance giving.
We would strongly recommend that changes be made to the act. It would simply be to provide a definition of the term that beneficiaries be “qualified donees”, a term under the act, which in essence is other registered charities and levels of government and certain other organizations, so it's very little in terms of changes to the act.
The second proposal is the third one on our submission, but I would like to address it before the other, and it is for an additional provision to the Income Tax Act that would enhance gifts of real estate, of real property. In 2006 changes were made to the act to permit donations of publicly traded securities and to allow such gifts to be made without, in essence, paying tax on the capital gain, so that the capital gain was exempted from taxation.
In essence, we're asking for the same type of treatment to be given to gifts of real property, so that for a gift of real property given to a charity for its charitable activities, the gain on the property would be exempt. The normal rules would apply to recapture and that sort of thing with respect to the building. We are also asking that changes be made to include gifts where the property is sold by the donor but the proceeds are donated to the charity within 30 days of the original sale of the property.
That's the second proposal. As you may have noted or heard, the changes to the act for gifts of publicly donated securities dramatically increased giving. We think this proposal will also continue to dramatically increase giving. Now we currently have to structure and it's very complex to do gifts of real property.
The last item is to provide the association's support to a proposal put forward primarily by Imagine Canada, which is for the “stretch” credit. Of course, Imagine Canada's proposal has much more detail, but in essence it's hoping to provide an incentive to donors to increase their year-over-year giving, such that there will be a threshold set in 2009, and if they increase their charitable giving they will receive an enhanced credit.
Those are my remarks. Thank you.