The New Political Activities Rules for Charities

As some of you may know, the Federal government has recently changed the rules around political activities for registered charities. Imagine Canada put a webinar about understanding what those changes mean, and have graciously shared the webinar content with us.

You can watch the webinar presentation at this link.

Highlights of the New Political Activities Rule

• The term Political activity” has been removed from the Income Tax Act, and replaced with Public Policy Dialogue and Development
• This is a more encompassing definition of what can now be deemed charitable activities, and can be carried out without limits. Similarly to the old rules, these activities are permissible as long as they are related to the charity’s purpose, strictly nonpartisan, and respond to Consultation Panel recommendations, and does not violate other legal requirements around lobbying, for example

You can take a look at their powerpoint presentation (attached), as well as the Q&A from the webinar.