Carters Professional Corporate just released their latest charity law update.

Here is an excerpt:

A CRA news release, issued on June 14, 2010, notes that 810 charities were selected for audit last year. As a result, the CRA revoked the charitable status of 40 charities for serious infractions of the law. Many additional charities also lost their charitable status for failure to file their annual return. 

Revocation is a step taken by CRA in cases of serious non-compliance, including instances where an audit identifies significant non-charitable activity, private benefit directed towards directors and/or related persons, tax receipts issued in excess of actual gifts received or directed to specific persons, failure to spend sufficient amounts on charitable activities, gaps in or non-existent books and records, and/or lack of control and/or direction over expenditure of funds. 

CRA publishes the names of revoked charities on its website, to inform potential donors that the organization can no longer issue official donation receipts.  In addition, donors can search the CRA charities listing to verify whether a charity is registered and to view the charity's annual returns. 

The full CRA news release is available online at: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/nwsrm/rlss/2010/m06/nr100614-eng.html.