CRA provides detailed guidelines on the split-receipting rules

Positions in the new Folio on split-receipting include:

• The common law concept of gift (requiring inter alia that “no benefit or consideration must flow to the donor”) and the civil law concept (encompassing “gifts with partial consideration that are remunerative gifts or gifts with a charge”) differ, so that implicitly, s. 248(30), which can permit recognition of a gift where a benefit of under 80% of the donated property’s value flows back to the donor, is more necessary in the common law provinces.
• Even where this numerical test is satisfied, CRA considers that the other “gift” elements must be satisfied, e.g., “the intention to make a gift.”
• If the amount of advantages (other than cash or near-cash items such as gift certificates) received by the taxpayer (e.g., pens, and a pro rata portion of door prizes) do not exceed the lesser of 10% of the fair market value of the gifted property and $75, they will not be regarded as an advantage for the purposes of determining the eligible amount (i.e, taking into account their modest value, the advantages in fact can exceed 80%, and a receipt can be issued for the larger implied gift).
• Purchasing items at charity auctions generally gives rise to an eligible gift if any excess of the purchase price over the retail price is such as to satisfy the 80% test.
• Membership fees also can give rise to an eligible amount.
• CRA discusses s. 248(39), which is intended to prevent a taxpayer from avoiding a reduction in his gift amount under s. 248(25) (deeming the fair market value of gifted property to be equal to its cost, for example, when it is promptly gifted after purchase), by instead selling the property to the charity and then gifting the proceeds, or property substituted therefor), in a way which suggests that it considers the rule to apply mechanically rather than only in an avoidance context.
• S. 248(41) provides that the eligible amount of a gift is nil if the taxpayer fails to inform the qualified done of any circumstances that would cause the eligible amount of the gift under ss. 248(31), (35), (36), (38) or (39) to be less than the fair market value of the gifted property. CRA stipulates that this required disclosure might include not only the length of time the taxpayer held the property, and whether it was acquired as part of a tax shelter arrangement or from a non-arm’s-length party, but also “whether the taxpayer [was] engaged in a transaction or series of transactions to avoid the deemed fair market value rule.”

Neal Armstrong. Summaries of S7-F1-C1, Split-receipting and Deemed Fair Market Value under s. 118.1(1) – total charitable gifts, s. 248(30), s. 248(32), s. 248(39), s. 143.2(1) – limited-recourse amount, and s. 248(41).