Federal Consultation on Expanded Data Collection

The federal government has opened consultation on draft legislation that would significantly expand its data collection for nonprofits. Currently, nonprofits without charitable status are only required to submit the T1044 Information Return to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) if they meet any of the following criteria:

• Received or were entitled to receive taxable dividends, interest, rentals, or royalties totaling more than $10,000 in the fiscal period.

• Held total assets exceeding $200,000 at the end of the immediately preceding fiscal period.

• Were required to file an information return for a previous fiscal period.

Under the new legislation, all nonprofits with total gross revenues over $50,000 (including capital receipts) would be required to file the T1044 annually. A new short-form information return would be introduced for nonprofits that do not meet the $50,000 threshold. This short-form return would collect basic organizational details, such as leadership, activities, revenues, assets, and liabilities.

This consultation is a great opportunity for nonprofits to help shape regulatory requirements that will impact the sector. Organizations and individuals can sign on to the FNDC’s submission or use the FNDC’s toolkit to craft their own submission. The deadline to sign on to FNDC’s submission is 2:00pm on September 11. The deadline for all submissions is September 12.