Policy Forum: How and Why To Legislate the Charity-Politics Distinction Under the Income Tax Act

Adam Parachin ()
Additional contact information
Adam Parachin: Faculty of Law, Western University

Canadian Tax Journal, 2017, vol. 65, issue 2, 391-418

Abstract: The common law directly regulates the purposes but not the activities of charities. On balance, the "purpose-focused" methodology of the common law of charity works surprisingly well. However, its strength--flexibility--can be a liability in contexts where more exacting standards are desirable. Political activities of charities represent one of these contexts. This article explains (1) why political activities of charities should be directly regulated, (2) why the common law is ill-suited to this task, (3) how the current provisions of the Income Tax Act--subsections 149.1(6.1) and (6.2)--fall short, and (4) how to better legislatively regulate the political activities of charities.

Keywords: Charities; political; advocacy; regulations; activity; purpose (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.ctf.ca/EN/Publications/CTJ_Contents/2017CTJ2.aspx (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ctf:journl:v:65:y:2017:i:2:p:391-418

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
Canadian Tax Foundation, 145 Wellington Street West, Suite 1400, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5J 1H8
https://www.ctf.ca/E ... ns_ListingBooks.aspx

Access Statistics for this article

Canadian Tax Journal is currently edited by Kim Brooks, Kevin Milligan, and Daniel Sandler

More articles in Canadian Tax Journal from Canadian Tax Foundation Canadian Tax Foundation, 145 Wellington Street West, Suite 1400, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5J 1H8.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jim Lyons ().