On December 30, 2024, the Department of Finance announced the Federal Government’s intention to extend the deadline for making 2024 charitable donations. The extension to February 28, 2025, was in response to the one-month postal strike that began on November 15, 2024.
The Charitable Donation Extension Will Proceed:
On January 23, 2025, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) issued the following clarifications on its website:
- The CRA will proceed with administering the 2024 deadline extension for charitable donations.
- For Donees, the following applies:
-
- Charities and other qualified donees should continue to issue official donation receipts according to receipting rules.
- A charity or other qualified donee is not required to issue official donation receipts specific to the extension period. However, they may wish to do so as a courtesy to donors, if they generally receive only one annual receipt.
- The extension will not affect how charities and other qualified donees report tax-receipted revenue, on their 2024 and 2025 information returns. All official donation receipts issued during the 2025 fiscal period should be reported on the 2025 information return.
-
- For Donors, the following applies:
-
- The proposed extension is to be accomplished through changes to the Income Tax Act (ITA). These changes will deem the post-2024 donations to be made in the 2024 donation year. This is provided the taxpayer claims the deduction and makes payment (for the gift) by way of cheque, credit card, money order or electronic payment prior to March 2025.
- If the taxpayer does not claim the post-2024 gift in the 2024 donation year, the taxpayer may claim that gift in 2025 or carry it forward.
-
We’ll continue to keep you posted on this CRA extension for 2024 donations.
Here is a link to a pretty basic Donations Calculator from The Globe & Mail. This is also located on our Financial Tools webpage.