A service membership is a company providing service to the foundation. The cost of there services are paid to the service company and the service company in turn donates that amount to the foundation. There are limited services allowed in each area of business. A service member will retain business with the foundation on an on going process for many of the overheads we contract to keep us going.

Service Memberships and Corporate Memberships are promoted and advertised in our community, wilderness centres, marketing and advertising locally and nationally.

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Donating Business Services to Charity - How to Get A Receipt

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How to Receive A Donation Receipt for Services Provided

Donating business services to charity may sound like a logical and simple process. After all, it is common that a business may want to provide its services to a registered charity in exchange for a charitable receipt. The Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) however, has put in place some specific rules and limitations on this.

 

Gifts of Services

The CRA permits a registered charity to issue a donation receipt for income tax purposes for items that qualify as gifts. Currently the definition of a gift does not include the contribution of services, e.g. legal, consulting, financial and accounting services to name a few. As a result, a charity is unable to provide a donation receipt for tax purposes for services that were provided “free of charge” by a business. 

 

Cheque Swap

There is a way around this “Gift of Services” issue when donating business services to charity, which is commonly referred to as a cheque swap or also known by way of an exchange of cheques.

A cheque swap is when cheques (or payments) are exchanged between the charity and the business, that is, when the service is provided to the charity, the business invoices the charity for the service performed.
The charity then pays for the service in one transaction and the business makes a donation back to the charity in the amount of the payment received in another transaction.

It’s as simple as that, the charity and business have now swapped cheques. A charity should not issue a donation receipt for an invoice marked paid. Our tax advisors recommend that the swap of cheques occur as this provides an audit trail should CRA ever review the donation transaction.

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