Charities program facts and figures

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Charities program facts and figures

Total number of registered Canadian charities as of March 31, 2018

Category of charity Total
Poverty 19,394
Education 13,885
Religion 33,020
Other purposes beneficial to the community 19,935
Total 86,234

The following tables include statistics from the 2017-2018 fiscal year (April 1 to March 31):

Total number of registrations and inquiries

Type of service Total
Applications for registration received 3,142
Applications for re-registration received 215
Total number of charities registered and re-registered 1,569
Telephone enquiries 76,258
Written enquiries 10,441

Number of audits completed*

Results Total
  • No change/no further action
 51
  • Education letters issued
 313
  • Compliance agreements
 92
  • Voluntary revocations
 35
  • Penalties/suspensions
 5
  • Notices of intention to revoke issued**
 25
  • Annulments
 0
  • Other (includes other audit activities such as pre-registration and Part V audits)
 27
Total 548

*This figure includes situations where the audit is finished and the CRA has proposed to revoke the charity's registration, but may not yet have done so because there is a pending objection or appeal.

Revocations of registration

Reason for revocation Total
Revoked for failure to file an annual information return on time 584
Revoked as a result of an audit* 26
Revoked for other reasons (for example, failing to maintain corporate status) 22
Revoked voluntarily (at the charity's request) 930
Total 1,562

* This figure may relate to audits where a notice of intention to revoke was issued in a previous fiscal year, and for which the charity has already exercised its right to file an objection and/or appeal to the CRA’s decision to revoke its registration.

The following table provides an update on CRA’s review of the political activities of charities which began in 2012 and has been wound down according to the Minister's statement on May 4, 2017.

Political activities review as of May 4, 2017

Results Total
Reminder letters sent to charities that were not audited

29

Total number of political activities audits*

54
  • Audits currently underway**

5
  • Audits completed

49

    No further action

1

Education letters

12

Compliance ageements

24

Penalty/suspension

0

Notices of intention to revoke

7

Revocation as a result of an audit

2

Voluntary revocation

1

Annulment

2

*While 60 audits were initially planned, the CRA has only conducted 54 political activities audits as a result of the winding down of this program.

**All actions on audits suspended as a result of the May 4, 2017 News Release.


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Date modified:
2018-12-04