Charitable status revoked for 12 B.C. charities linked to single Vancouver company

The Canada Revenue Agency revoked the status of 12 B.C.-based charities between July 2022 and January 2023, all of them connected to a recently retired Vancouver lawyer and his former company.

The revocations follow a series of multi-year audits by the taxation agency, which alleged several breaches of tax law.

The CRA allegations have not been proven in court, and the now-retired lawyer whose firm set up the charities says the “unfortunate and unjustified” revocations could discourage other Canadians from making large charitable donations.

Most of the charities, the CRA alleges, failed to devote their resources exclusively to charitable purposes, as required by law. Instead, the agency alleged, some of the charities operated primarily as “private tax planning arrangements” for the benefit of the organizations’ directors and donors, who include high-profile and wealthy British Columbians.