Receipting - Frequently Asked Questions
This area of our site is devoted to Frequently Asked Questions on issuing proper tax donation receipts. You will find a detailed and up-to-date catalogue of commonly asked questions and answers, with additional links for more information. The Receipting FAQs can be accessed in many ways. You can move around the FAQs by choosing from the six (6) main question areas listed in the left hand menu under FAQs or select from the drop down menu at the bottom of the page.
If you have a question that you don't see answered here, please send us an e-mail at info@charitycentral.ca and we will do our best to respond as soon as possible.
- Gifts - General | Dons - Genéral
- Receipting - The Basics | Reçus - L'essentiel
- Determining Eligible Amounts|Déterminer les montants admissibles
- Issuing Receipts for Specific Kinds of Gifts|Délivrance de reçus pour dons particuliers
- Enduring Property | Biens durables
- Disbursement Quota|Contingent des versements
Receipting FAQs
The information provided is generally applicable to your organization if it is a charity registered under the Income Tax Act.
- Gifts - General
- Receipting - The Basics
- General Information about Receipts
- R1. What is an "official" donation receipt?
- R2. Who can issue official donation receipts?
- R3. Who are qualified donees?
- R4. Our charity was officially registered on March 1, 2008. When can we start issuing official donation receipts?
- R5. What does our charity need to know before we issue an official donation receipt?
- R6. Does our charity always have to issue official donation receipts for donations?
- R7. How does our charity determine whether to issue official donation receipts?
- R8. For any given calendar year, when must our charity complete all receipting?
- R9. Our charity received a gift from another registered charity. Should we issue an official donation receipt to the other charity?
- R10. My charity is hiring a third party to organize a fundraiser. Can that third party issue the official donation receipts?
- Format & Required Information
- Improper receipting
- R16. What if our stock of official donation receipts has a mistake? Can we use corrected printed receipts, and, if so, how do we make the correction?
- R17. How can our charity replace a lost or spoiled receipt?
- R18. What steps should a registered charity take when it issues a receipt with an incorrect amount?
- R19. What is the penalty for issuing receipts with false information?
- R20. Is there anything else that our charity should know about false receipting?
- General Information about Receipts
- Determining Eligible Amounts
- General Rules
- D1. What is fair market value and why is it important?
- D2. What is the “deemed fair market value” rule? Why is it important?
- D3. A donor told our charity that we should apply the “deemed fair market value rule” to his gift in kind. Whose responsibility is it to ensure that the rule is applied?
- D4. Our charity received a gift of a musical instrument. How does our charity determine the fair market value of gifts in kind?
- D5. Our charity received a gift in kind worth more than $1,000. Do higher-priced items have to be appraised by more than one appraiser?
- D6. What if the fair market value cannot be determined?
- D7. When determining the fair market value of an item should we include the GST and PST?
- D8. What is split receipting
- D9. What is an "advantage" and why is it important?
- D10. How does our charity determine the fair market value of an advantage?
- D11. Our charity plans to offer door prizes and baseball caps at our next fundraising event. Do all these benefits have to be treated as an advantage?
- D12. What is the “de minimis” threshold and why is it important?
- D13. Does our charity have to consider every advantage in the calculation of the de minimis amount?
- D14. How does our charity determine the eligible amount of the gift?
- D15. In split receipting, what is the "intention to make a gift" threshold?
- Special Gifts
- D16. What is the general principle on receipting of donations of services?
- D17. What are the general principles on receipting of capital property as gifts?
- D18. What are the general principles on receipting gifts of certified cultural property?
- D19. Does cultural property have to be certified by the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board to be considered a gift-in-kind?
- D20. What are the benefits of having property certified as cultural property?
- D21. If a charity that is a designated institution disposes of cultural property other than to another designated institution, what are the tax implications?
- D22. Our charity received a donation of ecologically sensitive land from a farmer. Can we issue an official donation receipt?
- D23. What are the general principles on receipting of gifts of ecologically sensitive land?
- D24. A donor wants to give our charity some ecologically sensitive land, but also wants to pass it on to her heirs. What does our charity do if the donor wants to maintain some connection with the land?
- D25. Our charity received a gift of mortgaged property. In what amount should we make out the official donation receipt?
- D26. What are the general principles on the receipting of charitable annuities?
- D27. Our charity has been given a "charitable remainder trust". What is it and how is it receipted?
- General Rules
- Issuing Receipts for Specific Kinds of Gifts
- General Questions about Specific Gifts
- S1. Our charity gives a very small token of appreciation to each donor. It is worth almost nothing. Must the amount as it appears on the official donation tax receipt be reduced by the cost of that token?
- S2. A donor gave our charity a cash donation, but asked that the monies be forwarded to a specific family. Do we issue an official donation receipt?
- S3. Are membership fees considered donations? Can donation tax receipts be issued?
- S4. Can a company donate goods out of its inventory? If so, how much can the official donation receipt be issued for?
- S5. Our charity wants to show its appreciation for a volunteer who spent many hours on a project. Can we issue a donation receipt for the volunteer's services?
- S6. Can an official donation receipt be issued to volunteers for expenses incurred on behalf of our charity if they bear the cost of those expenses?
- S7. One of our donors would like to make a donation and receive advertising or sponsorship status in return. Can our charity do this and, if so, how should we make out the receipt?
- S8. Can we take up a collection and raffle the receipt? A group of 20 people from work will each contribute $20 toward a $400 donation to charity. We would like to raffle a receipt for $400. Can we do this?
- S9. Our charity received a donation of a $100 gift certificate from an aesthetician for a facial. How much should the receipt be for?
- S10. Our charity received a donation of a $100 gift certificate from someone who purchased the gift certificate from an aesthetician. Can we issue an official donation receipt and for how much?
- S11. Can official donation receipts be issued for publicly traded shares or stock options?
- S12. Our charity received a donation of a life insurance policy. How should the receipt be issued?
- S13. Our registered charity received a donation in the form of an RRSP death benefit. How should we issue the receipt?
- S14. Our registered charity received a donation of an artist's painting. How do we determine the amount for the official donation receipt?
- Type of Donor
- S15. Our charity has a donor that gives on a regular basis. Can we issue just ONE donation receipt per tax year?
- S16. Our charity received an anonymous gift. Since we do not have a name and address, do we have to issue a tax receipt? If we have to issue a tax receipt for the donation, how should we do it?
- S17. Our charity received a donation by way of cheque written on an account held jointly by spouses. To whom do we make out the receipt?
- S18. Our charity received a donation via cheque written on an account held by a corporation. The individual who owns the corporation wants the official donation receipt made out in his name. Can we do this?
- S19. Our charity received a donation from an individual who says that she is the trustee for another individual and she wants the official donation receipt to be made out in the name of that other individual. Can we do this?
- Fundraising Context
- S20. If our registered charity has a fundraising event where door prizes are included with tickets, can we issue official donation receipts? If so, for how much?
- S21. If our registered charity has a fundraising event where tickets are sold at a price higher than the fair market value of a similar event, can we issue receipts? If so, for how much?
- S22. Will the attendance of a celebrity at our fundraising event affect the donation amount on the tax receipts?
- S23. Our registered charity sold lottery tickets. Can we issue donation receipts for the ticket and if so, for how much?
- S24. Is the amount paid for a raffle ticket a gift and, if so, what is the amount on the receipt?
- S25. Can property donated for sale at an auction be considered a gift?
- S26. Can a successful bidder at an auction receive a tax receipt for donation for the amount in excess of the fair market value that he or she pays?
- S27. Can our charity issue an official donation receipt to the donor for the appraised value of donated goods if they are sold at auction for less than this amount?
- S28. Can an individual who purchases a service at an auction be entitled to a donation receipt for the amount paid that is more than the value of the service received?
- S29. A business bought a block of tickets for our golf tournament with money collected from its employees. Should we issue the tax receipt in the name of the golfers who use the tickets or in the name of the business?
- S30. Can a receipt be issued to participants in a fundraising golf tournament?
- S31. An organization that is not a registered charity asked to use our registered charity registration number for their fundraising event. Can we do this?
- General Questions about Specific Gifts
- Enduring Property
- EP1. What is included in enduring property?
- EP2. When are gifts of enduring property (excluding inter-charity transfers) included in a registered charity's disbursement quota?
- EP3. If a charity receives enduring property from a registered charity, is there a disbursement quota obligation for the recipient charity?
- EP4. If a charity transfers enduring property which it received as a specified gift, Is there a disbursement quota obligation for that donor charity?
- EP5. If a charity transfers enduring property as a specified gift, is there a disbursement quota obligation for the recipient charity?
- EP6. What is a bequest?
- EP7. When an individual makes a gift through his or her will, when is the gift deemed to have been made?
- EP8. Can a charity issue a receipt prior to the transfer of property by the deceased’s estate?
- EP9. If a will allows trustees to decide on the way property is disposed, either to a charity or to another organization, can a donation receipt be issued for the property that the trustees donate to a charity?
- EP10. If the terms of a person’s will specify that property be used to establish a charitable foundation, can a donation receipt be issued if the charity is registered?
- EP11. Can a deceased individual obtain an official receipt for tax purposes when a charity has been designated as a beneficiary of a registered retirement income fund?
- Disbursement Quota
- DQ1. I know that registered charities have to keep copies of the donation receipts issued. Are there rules about when the receipted donations have to be spent and what can they be used for?
- DQ2. How much is a registered charity required to spend to meet its disbursement quota, and when is it required to spend it?
- DQ3. Are our charity’s non-receipted gifts subject to the same rules as the receipted donations?
- DQ4. What is meant by our charity’s “disbursement quota” on receipted income?
- DQ5. How much do charities have to spend of their receipted gifts? What are the rules?
- DQ6.What are our charitable expenses and why are they important in meeting the disbursement quota?
- DQ7. What are our non-charitable expenses and why are they important in determining the disbursement quota?
- DQ8. What happened if our Charity spends more than or less than the disbursement quota for a year?
- DQ9. What is a disbursement excess?
- DQ10. What is a disbursement shortfall?
- DQ11. What can a charity do if we cannot meet our disbursement quota?
- DQ12. Is it possible to accumulate property outside of our disbursement quota? How can this be done?
- DQ13. Will all the donations we receive be included in the calculation of our disbursement quota?
- DQ14. How should our charity calculate our disbursement quota?