Many charities with March 31 year ends need to file their T3010 by September 30

Many Canadian registered charities have March 31 year ends. Mostly these are aligned with government funders who have a similar year-end. These March 31 registered charities need to ensure that they can accurately file their T3010 by September 30.

Here are a few suggestions:

-make sure that your charity is on the CRA MyBA system so that it can electronically file the T3010 – reduces errors and also speeds up the availability of the information.

-read the T3010 guide, not just the form, to more accurately file the form.

-filing it accurately is important as your registered charity can be suspended from issuing receipts or receiving gifts if the form is not accurate. Moreover, the 2021 Federal budget has proposed revocation for registered charities who file deliberately incorrect information on their T3010.

-have the form reviewed in larger and more complicated charities by the finance department, programs area, governance staff, fundraising, accounting and legal.

We probably review about 100 T3010s a year for clients before they file them. In more than 90% of cases, we find significant mistakes in their draft forms. It is much easier to fix a mistake in a T3010, rather than to try and amend it later. If you wish to retain our firm to review your T3010 filing please try to do it earlier and not close to the deadline. We will also need to have not only the T3010 form, but all schedules and financial statements to be able to review it.

For those who are interested, we have a course “Transparency in the Canadian Charitable Sector and the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return“. From now until September 30, 2021, you can obtain a 20% discount using the code T3010September

The T3010 is the only mandatory filing that all Canadian registered charities must file. It is often used by journalists, donors, funders and others to understand the work of a charity. It is a vital transparency tool and it is important that charities file the form on time and accurately.

By Mark Blumberg, Blumbergs, Canadian Charity Law

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