On this page
- What the T3010 Is and When It Is Due
- What Happens If You File Late: Revocation and the $500 Penalty
- The Full Package: T3010, T1235, T1236 and Financial Statements
- Filing Online Through My Business Account
- Section by Section: Where Charities Get It Wrong
- Reporting Fundraising, Political Activity and Related Businesses
- The Disbursement Quota and How It Is Reported
- What Becomes Public, and How Donors Read It
- Changing Directors, Address or Fiscal Year End
- FAQ: The T3010 Registered Charity Information Return
- Charity or Non Profit? We Prepare T3010s and Year End Statements
What the T3010 Is and When It Is Due
Every registered charity in Canada files a T3010 Registered Charity Information Return, and it is due six months after the end of your fiscal period. December 31 year end means June 30. March 31 year end means September 30.
Two things make this return different from every other filing a small organisation does.
First, the consequence of not filing is not a penalty, it is losing your registration. CRA can revoke charitable status for a missed T3010. Once revoked, you cannot issue donation receipts, you lose the income tax exemption, and you face a revocation tax equal to 100% of your remaining assets unless everything is transferred to an eligible donee within a year. There is no other Canadian filing where the downside is that steep.
Second, it is public. Anyone can look up your T3010 on CRA’s charity listings. Funders do. Major donors do. Journalists do. A return filed carelessly is a document the world reads.
Here is how to get it right.
The T3010 reports a charity’s finances, activities, governance and compliance for one fiscal period.
| Fiscal year end | T3010 due |
| December 31 | June 30 |
| March 31 | September 30 |
| June 30 | December 31 |
| August 31 | February 28 or 29 |
There are no extensions. Unlike a corporate tax return, you cannot request more time. If your auditor is late, you still file on time with the best figures you have and correct afterwards, because a late return is worse than an imperfect one.
Which version to use: fiscal periods ending on or after December 31, 2023 use version 24 of the form. Earlier periods use version 23. Filing the wrong version gets the return sent back.
What Happens If You File Late: Revocation and the $500 Penalty
The formal penalty for late filing is $500. That is the small part.
The real consequence is the revocation process:
- CRA sends a reminder after the due date passes.
- If there is still no return, CRA issues a notice of intention to revoke.
- Revocation is published in the Canada Gazette.
- From the date of publication, the charity can no longer issue official donation receipts and is no longer exempt from tax on its income.
- The charity has one year to transfer its remaining assets to an eligible donee, or pay a revocation tax equal to the full value of its assets.
Re registering afterwards is possible but it is a fresh application, with the late return filed, the $500 penalty paid, and CRA looking closely at why the lapse happened. Organisations have folded over this.
The practical safeguard: put the T3010 deadline in the board calendar as a governance item, not an accounting one, and make someone other than the treasurer responsible for confirming it was filed. Most missed returns are not decisions. They are transitions, a treasurer resigning in month four and nobody picking it up.
The Full Package: T3010, T1235, T1236 and Financial Statements
A “complete” return is four things. Sending only the T3010 means the return is incomplete and the clock keeps running.
| Component | What it is |
| T3010 | The main return, plus the relevant schedules |
| T1235, Directors/Trustees and Like Officials Worksheet | Every director, trustee or like official during the fiscal period, with dates, addresses, arm’s length status and dates of birth |
| T1236, Qualified Donees Worksheet | Every gift you made to another qualified donee, with their registration number and the amount |
| Financial statements | For the fiscal period covered, whether audited, reviewed or internally prepared |
Schedules that may apply:
- Schedule 1 for foundations, including restricted funds
- Schedule 2 for activities outside Canada
- Schedule 3 for compensation
- Schedule 4 for confidential data
- Schedule 5 for non cash gifts
- Schedule 6 for detailed financial information, required above the revenue threshold
- Schedule 7 for political activities
- Schedule 8 for the disbursement quota, where applicable
The two that go missing most often are the T1235 and the financial statements. Both are mandatory. The T1235 in particular is where the director information has to be current and complete, including for people who served for only part of the year.
Filing Online Through My Business Account
CRA strongly prefers online filing, and it is faster and less likely to be returned.
- Sign in to My Business Account with the charity’s business number.
- Open the Charities section.
- Select File a return and choose the fiscal period.
- Complete the T3010 and the applicable schedules on screen.
- Complete the T1235 and T1236.
- Upload the financial statements as an attachment.
- Certify and submit.
Two access issues that stall charities every year:
- Only an authorised representative can file. If the person with access has left the organisation, sorting out new authorisation takes weeks. Check who has access before June, not on June 28.
- The person certifying must be a director, trustee or like official, or an authorised representative. A bookkeeper without authorisation cannot submit it.
Section by Section: Where Charities Get It Wrong
Section C, programs and activities. Descriptions are often too vague to be useful, or copied from the website. CRA is looking for whether your actual activities match your stated charitable purposes. “Community support” says nothing. “Operated a weekly food hamper program serving 140 households in Surrey” is what belongs there.
Compensation reporting. The number of full time and part time positions, and the compensation bands for the ten highest paid, get misreported constantly. Report actual positions, not headcount at a point in time, and include all remuneration, not just base salary.
Receipted vs non receipted revenue. Every dollar you issued an official receipt for goes in the receipted line. Government grants, fees for service, fundraising revenue where no receipt was issued, and gifts from other registered charities are not receipted revenue. Mixing these up is the single most common error and it distorts every ratio a funder calculates from your return.
Gifts to other charities. These go on the T1236 and in the corresponding line of the T3010. Reporting one and not the other creates a mismatch CRA notices.
Fundraising costs. Allocating staff time between program and fundraising is judgement, but it has to be a defensible judgement applied consistently. A charity reporting zero fundraising costs while reporting significant fundraising revenue invites questions.
Assets and liabilities. The balance sheet figures have to agree with your financial statements. They frequently do not, usually because the return was prepared from a trial balance before adjustments.
Reporting Fundraising, Political Activity and Related Businesses
Fundraising. Report gross revenue and gross costs, not net. CRA looks at the cost to revenue ratio, and while there is no fixed legal limit, ratios above roughly 35% attract attention and above 70% are treated as presumptively a problem absent explanation. If your ratio is high for a legitimate reason (a first year capital campaign, a small donor acquisition program), say so in the return rather than leaving CRA to guess.
Public policy dialogue and development activities. Since the 2018 changes, charities can carry on unlimited public policy dialogue and development activities in furtherance of their charitable purposes. What remains prohibited is partisan political activity, meaning direct or indirect support of or opposition to a political party or candidate. Schedule 7 is where this is reported.
Related business. A charitable organisation or public foundation may run a related business, meaning one substantially staffed by volunteers or linked to and subordinate to its purposes. Private foundations may not run any business at all. Unrelated business income is a compliance problem, not a tax question, and it is worth resolving before it appears on a return.
Grants to non qualified donees. Since the 2022 rules, charities can make qualifying disbursements to organisations that are not qualified donees, subject to accountability requirements. Version 24 of the T3010 asks about these specifically. If you are granting to a non registered community group, the documentation has to exist before the grant, not after.
Maxpro Financials prepares T3010 packages and year end financial statements for charities and non profits in BC and Alberta, which is usually the simplest way to keep the return and the statements agreeing with each other.
The Disbursement Quota and How It Is Reported
The disbursement quota is the minimum a charity must spend each year on its own charitable activities and on gifts to qualified donees. It is based on the value of property not used directly in charitable activities or administration, averaged over the preceding 24 months.
| Portion of property | Rate |
| Up to $1 million | 3.5% |
| Above $1 million | 5% |
The 5% tier applies to fiscal periods beginning on or after January 1, 2023, and was a significant increase for larger endowed foundations.
Schedule 8 must be completed if average undisbursed property exceeded:
- $100,000 for a charitable organisation, or
- $25,000 for a public or private foundation
On Schedule 8 you report your quota for the year and estimate next year’s.
If you cannot meet it: a shortfall can be made up with excess spending from the previous year or the following year. CRA also has discretion to grant relief. What you should not do is quietly under spend for several years and hope nobody adds it up, because the return itself is the record that shows it.
What Becomes Public, and How Donors Read It
Almost the whole T3010 is published on CRA’s charity listings, including:
- Total revenue and its sources
- Total expenditures split between charitable activities, management and administration, and fundraising
- Compensation bands for the ten highest paid positions
- Names of directors (addresses and dates of birth are kept confidential)
- Gifts made to other qualified donees
What sophisticated funders actually look at:
| Ratio | What they infer |
| Charitable program spending as a share of total expenditure | Whether the organisation is delivering or administering |
| Fundraising cost to fundraising revenue | Efficiency and donor stewardship |
| Receipted revenue trend over three years | Whether the donor base is growing or eroding |
| Cash and investments relative to annual expenditure | Whether reserves are prudent or excessive |
| Year over year consistency | Whether the numbers are being prepared carefully |
That last row matters more than people expect. A funder reviewing three consecutive returns with wildly inconsistent categorisation will conclude the organisation has weak financial management, whatever the numbers say.
Changing Directors, Address or Fiscal Year End
Directors. Report changes on the T1235 with the return, and update CRA promptly through My Business Account when they happen rather than waiting for the annual filing. Charities with high board turnover should be updating this several times a year.
Address or contact information. Update through My Business Account. An outdated address is how charities miss CRA’s revocation reminders, which is a preventable disaster.
Fiscal year end. You need CRA’s written approval before changing a charity’s fiscal period end. Changing it without approval creates two overlapping or gapped returns and a compliance problem. Write to the Charities Directorate and wait for the answer.
Governing documents. Changes to purposes or to the incorporating documents must be sent to the Charities Directorate, because they can affect whether the organisation still qualifies for registration.
FAQ: The T3010 Registered Charity Information Return
When exactly is the T3010 due? Six months after your fiscal period ends. No extensions are available.
What is the penalty for filing late? $500, plus the risk of having your registration revoked, which is the real consequence.
Do we have to file if we had no activity and no revenue? Yes. A nil return is still a return, and a dormant charity that skips filing gets revoked like any other.
Do our financial statements need to be audited? Not for CRA purposes. They must be filed with the return, but whether they are audited, reviewed or internally prepared depends on your governing documents, your funders and provincial requirements.
Is the whole return public? Most of it. Directors’ addresses and dates of birth and Schedule 4 confidential data are not published. Revenue, expenses and compensation bands are.
We missed last year’s return. What now? File it immediately, along with the current year’s if it is also due. If CRA has already issued a notice of intention to revoke, get professional help the same week, not the same month.
What is the disbursement quota rate? 3.5% on property up to $1 million and 5% above that, calculated on property not used in charitable activities.
Can we change our fiscal year end? Only with CRA’s written approval in advance.
Can we grant money to a group that is not a registered charity? Yes, as a qualifying disbursement, but only with accountability measures in place before the grant is made. Version 24 of the T3010 asks about these.
Who is allowed to sign and submit the return? A director, trustee or like official, or an authorised representative. Confirm who has access well before the deadline.
Charity or Non Profit? We Prepare T3010s and Year End Statements
Most T3010 problems are not tax problems. They are the result of a small organisation where the person who understood the finances left, and the return was reconstructed under time pressure from records that were never set up for it.
Maxpro Financials prepares year end financial statements and the full T3010 package for registered charities and non profits across BC and Alberta, including the T1235 and T1236, the disbursement quota calculation, and the schedules that apply to your designation. If you have a missed year or a notice from the Charities Directorate sitting on your desk, that is the conversation to have this week rather than next quarter.
Book a consultation or call BC +1 (778) 951 1269 / Alberta +1 (403) 437 6016.
