By: Florence Marino B.A., LL.B., TEP | Vice President, Tax & Estate Planning
On December 30, 2024, “the federal government announced that it intended to amend the Income Tax Act to extend the deadline for making donations eligible for tax support in the 2024 tax year, until February 28, 2025.” This, it said, “will mitigate the impacts of the four-week Canada Post mail stoppage by providing donors with sufficient time to ensure their contributions are received and processed…”
Since then, Parliament has been prorogued (see Capital gains inclusion rate change – To be or not to be? – Tompkins Insurance) and will not return until March 24, well after this extended date.
Many questions remained unanswered regarding the extent of this relief, not the least of which was the uncertainty about the legislative status of them.
Legislation released and administration confirmed
On January 23, 2025, the Department of Finance released draft legislation and explanatory notes containing these measures and stated that they would be introduced in Parliament “in due course”. It said that there would be no consultation on them in the interests of providing taxpayers “certainty as to how donations made during the extension period will be treated”. The CRA also stated that it would administer the draft legislation as if it were enacted.
Questions answered
This relief applies to all donors (e.g., individuals, trusts, corporations) who make a gift before March 2025 and after the end of their taxation year that ended after November 14, 2024 and before 2025. The donor can claim the donation in their 2024 or 2025 taxation year (or carry it forward).
Gifts eligible for this relief must be in cash, cheque, money order, electronic transfer or by credit card. It does not extend to gifts of property such as life insurance, listed securities, cultural property or ecological gifts. Donations made by payroll deduction do not qualify.
It also does not apply to gifts by will if the individual died after 2024. No similar rule is contained in the draft legislation for gifts by direct designation in a life insurance policy, RRSP, RRIF or TFSA in consequence of death after 2024.
The practical side
Charities are not required to issue receipts specific to this timeframe. They may do so as a courtesy to donors if they have the capacity to issue separate receipts for this period. If so, charities would issue the receipt indicating the date it received the gift, or, in the case of gifts received by mail, the date of the postmark.
The final word
It is likely that Parliament would support this when it comes back since it is, after all, a nice thing.
FOOTNOTE:
This publication is protected by copyright. Tompkins Insurance is not engaged in rendering tax or legal advice. TOMPKINSights contains a general discussion of certain tax and legal developments and should not be construed as tax or legal advice.
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florence@tompkinsinsurance.com

