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A guide for not-for-profit organizations

Official donation receipt for Canadian registered charities

There is currently a lot of confusion as to what information Canadian registered charities must include on their official donation receipts.

The following is a list of the required information that should be included on an official donation receipt. Canada Revenue Agency, Charities Directorate, has confirmed that this is all the information that would be required, based on current and proposed tax law.

Required Information
Every official donation receipt issued by a registered charity should include the following information in a manner that cannot be readily altered:

  1. The statement “This is an Official Receipt for Income Tax Purposes.”
  2. The serial number of the receipt.
  3. The name and address in Canada of the registered charity as recorded with the Minister (telephone number if available).
  4. The registration number assigned to the registered charity by the Minister.
  5. The amount of cash donation or, where the amount is a gift of property other than cash, the amount that is the fair market value of the property at the time the gift was made.
  6. The “eligible amount” of the gift. The “eligible amount” is “the amount by which the fair market value of the property that is the subject of the gift exceeds the amount of the advantage (benefit to donor), if any, in respect of the gift.” (Effective December 20, 2002)
  7. The name and address of the donor including, for an individual, his/her first name.
  8. The date on which the donation was received, however, if the donation was a gift of property, the date or the year the donation was received.
  9. If the donation is a gift of property other than cash, a description of the property.
  10. If the donation is a gift of property other than cash, the name and address of the appraiser.
  11. The place or locality where the receipt was issued.
  12. The signature of a responsible individual who has been authorized by the registered charity to acknowledge donations.
  13. The day on which the receipt was issued if the day differs from the day that the donation was received.
  14. For receipts issued after 2004, the name, “Canada Revenue Agency” and website address of the Canada Revenue Agency (“www.cra-arc.gc.ca/charities”). Canada Revenue Agency has stated that, for the year 2005, the name and website of the Canada Revenue Agency may be added to a charity's existing stock of receipts by other than printed means (e.g., sticker, stamp, handwritten).

Computer-generated receipts that contain all of the above information are acceptable to the Minister.

A duplicate of each official receipt containing the prescribed information must be kept with the registered charity's books and records.

For taxation years that begin after March 22, 2004, new penalties for various infractions have been introduced that will be an intermediary measure to deregistration. The penalty for issuing receipts with incomplete information will be 5% of the eligible amount stated on the receipt for the first infraction and 10% of the eligible amount for a repeat infraction. Repeated occurrences will increase the probability of deregistration which, prior to the introduction of these penalties, was the only penalty that could be imposed under the Canadian Income Tax Act.