The return the whole congregation can look up
Every registered charity files a T3010 Registered Charity Information Return within six months of its fiscal year-end, and the CRA publishes much of it on the public List of Charities. Any congregant with a phone can see the congregation's revenue, its fundraising costs, its property, whether it carried on a business, and the compensation of its ten highest-paid positions reported in salary bands. That visibility changes how the return should be prepared: it is a statement to the membership as much as a filing to the CRA, and the board should read it before anyone signs it.
The consequence of not filing is severe out of all proportion to the form's length. A charity that misses the T3010 can have its registration revoked, receipting stops the day revocation takes effect, and re-registration comes with a $500 penalty and a fresh application. Our tax filing engagement for congregations runs the T3010 off reconciled books on a calendar the board sees, so the deadline is never a surprise discovered in the mail.
Receipts that hold up when the Charities Directorate looks
An official donation receipt has required elements — the statement that it is an official receipt for income tax purposes, the charity's name and registration number, the donor's name, the date, the eligible amount and the CRA's charities web address — and receipts missing pieces are a standard audit finding. We tie the January receipt run to the envelope numbers, pre-authorized debit records and platform reports, so every receipt traces to money that actually arrived.
Fundraising events need split receipting. At a gala or fundraising iftar, the receipt covers the eligible amount only: the ticket price minus the value of the advantage the donor received. A $200 ticket to a dinner worth $60 supports a receipt for $140; an advantage worth no more than the lesser of $75 and 10% of the gift can be ignored; and if the advantage exceeds 80% of the payment, no receipt may be issued at all.
Gifts in kind — a donated van, carpet for the prayer hall — are receipted at fair market value with an appraisal trail for significant items. Donated services are different: a member electrician's free labour cannot be receipted, because services are not property. If the congregation pays the invoice and the member donates the payment back, both sides of that exchange are real and a receipt is proper.
Hall rentals and the related-business line
The T3010 asks directly whether the charity carried on a business, and a charity may only carry on a related business: one run substantially by volunteers, or one linked and subordinate to its charitable purposes. Renting the hall for weddings, community dinners and classes in hours when the space would otherwise sit empty is the classic use of surplus capacity. Running what amounts to a year-round commercial banquet operation is a different thing, and the board should have that conversation before the bookings pile up, not after a CRA letter arrives.
The HST side usually surprises new treasurers: most supplies made by a charity, including a typical hall rental, are exempt. No 13% goes on the invoice, no input tax credits attach to the costs, and the recovery route for tax the congregation pays is the rebate below. If a CRA review does land on receipting or the business line, our CRA Audit & Review Support service manages the correspondence.
The renovation rebate most congregations under-claim
A charity cannot claim input tax credits on an exempt activity, but the public service bodies' rebate returns 50% of the federal part of HST and 82% of the Ontario part. On a congregation-funded renovation, that is most of the tax coming back:
| Renovation paid for by the congregation | Amount |
|---|---|
| Contract price | $100,000 |
| HST paid at 13% | $13,000 |
| Federal part ($5,000) rebated at 50% | $2,500 back |
| Ontario part ($8,000) rebated at 82% | $6,560 back |
| Total recovered | $9,060 |
| True HST cost of the project | $3,940 |
The same rebate applies to utilities, snow clearing, repairs and every other taxed bill the congregation pays, not only the big campaign project. A congregation that has never registered for HST claims twice a year on Form GST66, and claims can generally be filed up to four years back — so a renovation finished two summers ago may still be holding recoverable tax. We file the rebate claims alongside the T3010 for congregations across the GTA, scoped and quoted in writing after a free 15-minute discovery call.
Source: CRA — Charities and giving.
