Canada/USA Tax Questions
Here’s a Brigada inquirer, wondering if there are any good resources out there to help with the question of raising and integrating financial support for natives of USA and Canada. In other words, if the org is a Canadian org, how would they handle funds raised in the USA? … and vice-versa. USA and Canada are great friends. We just need to inform the IRS and Revenue Canada of that fact. Any leads? If so, please let us know in the comment boxes below. Thanks!
I think the question is misphrased. Receiving funds from foreign sources is not an issue for either Canadian or US orgs. For registered charities or non-profits, they can even issue a tax receipt for foreign gifts. But the tax receipt is usually pretty useless for the foreign based donor – I think that may be the issue here. And unless the Canadian or US recipient has a partner org in the other country willing and able to process the donation, I think it may be insurmountable. From my experience, the Canadian system is much more stringent in this regard than the US. US orgs can process donations, issue tax receipts and send the money on to Canadians pretty freely. For a Canadian org it requires a legal agreement between the Canadian and US entities, as well as management and reporting responsibilities. For the Canadian CRA, it’s a control issue – the Canadian receipting org must show it has direction and control over the end use of the funds.