Finance committee  Mr. Chairperson, we do have access to that information, and I can certainly provide it to the committee. There are different reasons that a registered charity might lose its registered status. It might be revoked for cause, because of some serious non-compliance. It might ask f

Finance committee  Most of the proposals before the committee that deal with the charitable tax incentive and other incentives that might further increase giving are matters of fiscal policy that fall within the jurisdiction of the Department of Finance. Whenever a proposal comes forward, we would

Finance committee  We certainly work together. Their role is to make decisions with respect to tax policy issues. Once those sorts of determinations have been made, we would then look to see what the impact might be for the Canada Revenue Agency. It really does depend on the specific proposals bein

Finance committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chairperson. Thank you for the invitation to appear before you today on the study of the current tax incentives for charitable donations. My name is Cathy Hawara, and I am the director general of the charities directorate within the Canada Revenue Agency. Wi

Finance committee  The answer is that we receive the requests in writing. My view at this point in time is that it would be protected information, confidential taxpayer information.

Finance committee  The one issue that has come to me since I've been in this position has been officials working abroad. Some organizations have charitable activities abroad. That is the one instance I'm also aware of that I can raise for the committee's consideration.

Finance committee  It could potentially, and I believe some do that already, but it's a bit of a mix at the moment. I know that there are some for whom we do not publish the actual address.

Finance committee  I would just like to note that this does not happen very often. Actually, the vast majority of the information we have on charities and that can be released are available on our website. Very seldom does my office receive requests to withhold information.

Finance committee  I'm sorry, Mr. Chairperson, I'm not quite sure I understand the question. Tax shelters?

Finance committee  Oh, shelters. I apologize. I don't know whether it's a requirement of the IRS.

Finance committee  I don't have access to that information. However, because we would be amending a portion of the provision that applies to more than just the compensation, it would have broader implications than just on compensation.

Finance committee  The difficulty is that normally in these kinds of circumstances we do an assessment of the impacts from a privacy perspective, and that would include the risk to security in terms of revealing names and/or salaries. It is hard for me to say that there would be no instances when w

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would say this is a provision that currently exists in the Income Tax Act, and that we currently do rely on it to some extent in terms of determining which information potentially should not be disclosed publicly. You did hear from some members in the se

Finance committee  I would say that actually the officials within CRA do quite a bit of this on behalf of the minister, and we do expect the charities that come forward and request the use of that discretion to justify to us why this is necessary and why there are safety or security reasons that th

Finance committee  Everything hinges on the way that the bill has been drafted. The legislation applies to all charitable organizations. Currently, the 85,000 charitable organizations include orchestras, hospitals and universities. What makes the sector special is that there is such a wide diversi