Official Donation Receipts
ISSUING OFFICIAL DONATION RECEIPTS
Your church may issue official receipts for gifts that are received for and spent by your organization. Each receipt acknowledging a donation must contain the following:
- a statement that it is an "Official Donation Receipt for Income Tax Purposes"
- the name and address of your church as recorded with Canada Revenue Agency
- your church's business number as assigned by Canada Revenue Agency
- the serial number of the receipt
- the place where the receipt was issued
- for cash donations, the day on which, or the year during which, the donation was received
- for property donations other than cash
- the day on which the donation was received
- a brief description of the property
- name and address of appraiser of the property
- full name and address of donor (same name as on the cheque)
- the amount of the donation
- the statement: "For information on all registered charities under the Income Tax Act, please contact: Canada Revenue Agency."
- the Canada Revenue Agency web site www.cra-arc.gc.ca
Official donation receipts must be prepared at least in duplicate, must be signed by an individual authorized by your church to acknowledge donations; and must bear its own serial number. All copies of the donation receipt must be signed by the authorized person. The church is required to keep one copy on file of every official receipt issued.
REPLACING OFFICIAL DONATION RECEIPTS
A replacement receipt must be clearly identified as a
"Replacement Receipt" and will contain all the required information listed above. In addition it must clearly indicate the serial number of the receipt it is replacing. The file copy of the original receipt should be marked as "cancelled" and kept on file.
Other Information
Official donation receipts
should not be issued to acknowledge gifts from other registered charities.
If a donor is resident in the province of Quebec, you must issue two official donation receipts to the donor for income tax purposes with the notation
"Duplicate for Quebec Income Tax Purposes".
Detailed information on gifts and donation receipts can be found at the Canada Revenue Agency's web site.
cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tp/it110r3/it110r3-e.html or
cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/charities/pubs/receipts-e.html