{"id":25565,"date":"2011-03-24T22:29:07","date_gmt":"2011-03-25T02:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/25565\/canadas-tax-laws-put-animals\/"},"modified":"2011-03-24T22:29:07","modified_gmt":"2011-03-25T02:29:07","slug":"canadas-tax-laws-put-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/25565\/canadas-tax-laws-put-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada’s Tax Laws Put Animals Last"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by
AfSD\u2122(ADVOCATE FOR SAVING DOGS\u2122)<\/a>
\n
\nFacebook:
Advocate for Saving Dogs\u2122 on Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Canada’s Tax Laws Put Animals Last<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Posted by Michelle Lee, ALDF Litigation Fellow on March 23rd, 2011\u201cPromoting
\n the welfare of animals is only charitable when it results in a benefit
\nto humans. Purposes that benefit animals, but not humans, are not
\ncharitable.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

– Canada Revenue Agency, Consultation on proposed guidance for The Promotion of Animal Welfare and Charitable Registration<\/a> (Feb. 3, 2011) Paragraph 23<\/em>
The
\n Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) recently released its proposed guidelines
\non charitable registration for animal welfare organizations. These
\nguidelines describe how the CRA will determine whether an application
\nfor \u201cregistered charity\u201d status will be approved\u2014an important
\ndetermination for organizations that depend on tax-deductible donations.
\n The guidelines include the note above, indicating that organizations
\ncannot gain charitable status based solely on a purpose to benefit
\nanimals. <\/p>\n

Such a broad statement directing disregard for animal
\ninterests is cause for dismay, and has alarmed many who are concerned
\nabout the ability of Canadian organizations to carry out basic animal
\nprotection work. As it turns out, CRA guidelines go on to explain that
\ncertain types of animal protection work can be considered charitable
\nbecause of the way they benefit humanity by \u201cthe advancement of morals
\nand education\u201d and the promotion of public morality by \u201cchecking
\n[humanity\u2019s] innate tendency to cruelty.\u201d Thus, the rescue and treatment
\n of injured wildlife, as well as the operation of shelters, spay and
\nneuter programs, and non-profit animal hospitals, remain \u201ccharitable\u201d in
\n the eyes of the CRA \u2013 but only because such projects make us better
\npeople, not because of the benefits they provide to the animals.<\/p>\n

Further,
\n the CRA guidelines note that for an animal organization to be
\ncharitable, \u201c[t]he public benefit resulting from promoting the welfare
\nof animals must clearly outweigh any harm or potential harm to humans.\u201d
\nConsequently, an organization whose purpose is to abolish vivisection
\nwould not have a charitable purpose according to the CRA, even if it
\nabided by the Income Tax Act\u2019s restrictions on political activities,
\nbecause the supposed harm to humans that would result from the
\nabolishment of that practice would outweigh any benefit in the
\nadvancement of morals. <\/p>\n

The CRA\u2019s proposed guidelines do not
\nrepresent new restrictions; rather, they represent old ideas with roots
\nin the English common law. In fact, the CRA\u2019s position on
\nanti-vivisection organizations comes directly from the United Kingdom\u2019s
\nHouse of Lords. While the same law does not prevail in the United
\nStates, animal advocates everywhere will recognize the familiar theme of
\n subordinating even the most fundamental of animal interests\u2014to be free
\nfrom pain and cruelty\u2014to those of humans. <\/p>\n

All non-human animals
\nface an uphill battle towards having their interests recognized by the
\nlaw. If CRA guidelines are any indication of the state of the law in
\nCanada, then Canadian animals have an especially long way to go. The
\nSupreme Court of Canada has expressed reluctance to change the law of
\nhow a \u201ccharity\u201d is to be defined in Canada. It therefore falls to the
\nCanadian Parliament to bring Canadian law in line with modern norms by
\namending the Income Tax Act to recognize that promoting humane treatment
\n of animals is a charitable purpose to be valued for its own sake.
\nUntil then, not only will animals\u2019 interests be disregarded in the
\npursuit of justice; they will not even be proper objects of charity.<\/p>\n

The Canada Revenue Agency\u2019s complete proposed guidelines can be seen here<\/a>. CRA is accepting comments<\/a> on its guidelines until March 31. <\/p>\n

Posted in ALDF Blog<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source:
\n
http:\/\/aldf.org\/article.php?id=1651
\n
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<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted byAfSD\u2122(ADVOCATE FOR SAVING DOGS\u2122) Facebook:Advocate for Saving Dogs\u2122 on Facebook Canada’s Tax Laws Put Animals Last Posted by Michelle Lee, ALDF Litigation Fellow on March 23rd, 2011\u201cPromoting the welfare of animals is only charitable when it results in a benefit to humans. Purposes that benefit animals, but not humans, are not charitable.\u201d – Canada […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}