Issue 2025-06

In brief

What happened?

On January 23, 2025:

• the Department of Finance released draft legislation to implement the Minister of Finance’s December 30, 2024 announcement to extend to February 28, 2025 the deadline for making donations eligible for tax relief in the 2024 tax year
• the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) confirmed that it will administer this 2024 deadline extension based on the draft legislation

This proposed extension is intended to mitigate the impacts on the charitable sector of the four‑week Canada Post mail stoppage that occurred during late 2024.

Why is it relevant?

The draft legislation provides details on how the extended deadline will apply and which types of donations will be eligible, so that taxpayers can make an informed decision before the February 28, 2025 extended deadline on whether they should make these charitable contributions before that date. The CRA’s confirmation of how it will administer this extension helps provide certainty for upcoming tax filings.

Actions to consider

Certain donors should consider making their charitable contributions (other than gifts‑in‑kind) before March 1, 2025, so that they can claim the donation on their 2024 tax returns.

Charities and other qualified donees that receive these donations should issue official donation tax receipts for eligible donations that specify the date of the gift, or (at a minimum) that the gifts were received during the 2025 two-month extension period, so that their donors may choose to claim the eligible amount of the charitable contribution on their 2024 or 2025 tax returns and will have the official receipts to support those claims.

In detail

The proposed rules

The draft legislation extends, to February 28, 2025, the deadline for making donations that are eligible for tax relief in the 2024 tax year. Charitable contributions (other than gifts‑in‑kind) made after December 31, 2024 and before March 1, 2025 by:

• individuals
• corporations and graduated rate estates¹ (with taxation years ending after November 14, 2024 and before 2025)

will be deemed to be made in the taxpayer’s 2024 tax year (but can still be claimed in the 2025 tax year or carried forward and claimed in any of the five subsequent taxation years). The donation must be in the form of cash or transferred by way of cheque, credit card, money order or electronic payment. It excludes donations made by payroll deduction or in a will of a taxpayer who died after 2024.

How does this affect donors?

Taxpayers (individuals, corporations and graduated rate estates) that meet the above criteria may claim the eligible amount of certain gifts made to charities or other qualified donees before March 1, 2025 on their 2024 income tax returns. If the taxpayer does not claim this amount on their 2024 return, the taxpayer can claim it on their 2025 return or carry forward the amount.

How does this affect charities or other qualified donees?

Charities and other qualified donees should continue to issue official donation receipts in accordance with regulatory requirements. This includes reporting two dates on the official donation tax receipt – the date:

• the gift was received by the charity or other qualified donee
• the tax receipt is issued

For donations received by mail, the CRA considers the date of the donation to be the date of the first-class mail postmark on the envelope.

A charity or other qualified donee that typically issues only one annual donation tax receipt for the aggregate donations received during a particular calendar year may wish to (as a courtesy to its donors) issue separate official donation tax receipts with the specific month, day and year that the gift was received. All official donation tax receipts should report a second date being the date that the tax receipt was issued by the qualified donee.

The extension will not affect how registered charities report tax-receipted donations on their 2024 and 2025 Form T3010 Registered Charity Information Returns. Tax‑receipted and non‑tax receipted donations received by a Canadian registered charity in early 2025 should be reported on Form T3010 for the fiscal year in which the donations were received.

^{1. A graduated rate estate is an estate that arose on (and as a consequence of) the death of an individual, is a testamentary trust for the first 36 months after the date of death and has made certain designations and provided certain taxpayer identification information on the estate’s tax return.}