Charities program facts and figures

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Charities program facts and figures

Total number of registered Canadian charities as of March 31, 2016

Category of charity Total
Poverty 19,175
Education 13,951
Religion 33,114
Other purposes beneficial to the community 19,951
Total 86,191

The following tables include statistics from the 2015-2016 fiscal year (April 1, to March 31):

Total number of registrations and inquiries

Type of service Total
Applications for registration received 3,234
Applications for re-registration received 306
Total number of charities registered and re-registered 1,658
Telephone enquiries 101,198
Written enquiries 10,622

Number of audits completed*

Results Total
  • No change/no further action
 40
  • Education letters issued
 444
  • Compliance agreements
 111
  • Voluntary revocations
 22
  • Penalties/suspensions
 4
  • Notices of intention to revoke issued**
 21
  • Annulments
 59
  • Other (includes other audit activities such as pre-registration and Part V audits)
 25
Total 726

*This table includes both regular audits and political activities audits completed in the 2015-2016 fiscal year.

**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 708
Revoked as a result of an audit* 20
Revoked for other reasons (for example, failing to maintain corporate status) 0
Revoked voluntarily (at the charity's request) 701
Total 1,429

* 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 will be winding down.

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
    • No further action
    • Education letters
    • Compliance agreements
    • Penalty/suspension
    • Notices of intention to revoke**
    • Revocation as a result of an audit
    • Voluntary revocation
    • Annulment

49
1
12
24
0
7
2
1
2

*While 60 audits were initially planned, the CRA will only have 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.

Date modified:
2017-06-23