Publication
Arbitration trends in the Middle East: What to expect in 2024 and beyond
The last several years have seen rapid growth in the Middle East.
Canada | Publication | April 2022
On April 7, the minister of finance provided the 2022 federal budget, including proposed amendments to the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the ITA).
Among the amendments are two very significant changes affecting Canada’s charitable sector.
Since 2010, the disbursement quota applicable to registered charities has been set at 3.5% of the value (calculated on a rolling basis) of the charity’s property that is not used directly in charitable activities or administration. In practice, this has included investment property, including investment portfolios and real estate investments not used for charitable purposes or administration.
Budget 2022 proposed to increase the rate from 3.5% to 5% for the portion of such property that exceeds $1 million. The proposal reasons that this change will increase expenditures by charities overall, while accommodating smaller grant-making charities that may not be able to realize the same investment returns as larger charities. In effect, it suggests that charities with investments with a value of over $1 million should be able to realize annual income from such investment of at least 5% of the invested value.
The budget also proposes to amend the ITA:
Specific details of these proposals are not yet available. It is proposed that these measures would apply to charities in respect of their fiscal periods beginning on or after January 1, 2023.
Under the current ITA, registered charities are limited to devoting their resources to carry out their own charitable activities or to provide gifts or grants to qualified donees. Charities that wish to operate certain activities through an intermediary organization (other than a qualified donee), are required to maintain ongoing control and direction over the activity in order to demonstrate that it remains the charity’s “own activity.”
Budget 2022 proposes a number of changes to allow charities to make qualified disbursements to organizations that are not qualified donees, provided that these disbursements are in furtherance of the charity’s charitable purposes and the charity ensures that the funds are applied to charitable activities by the grantee.
In order to be considered a qualified disbursement, certain accountability requirements must be met, such as:
Lastly, to reduce the risk of charities being used as a conduit for improper distributions, a rule will be extended to registered charities that will prohibit them from accepting gifts, the granting of which was expressly or implicitly conditional upon making a gift to a person other than a qualified donee. Put simply, a charity will not be able to accept a gift where the gift is conditional upon it being transferred to a person or organization other than a qualified donee.
Further details on these rules will follow, and these changes are proposed to take effect on royal assent to the enacting legislation.
Publication
The last several years have seen rapid growth in the Middle East.
Publication
On May 14, 2024, Lena Haffner, Innovation Lead Germany at Norton Rose Fulbright, shared her insights on “How do you make a law firm AI ready?" at Legal Revolution 2024, one of Europe’s leading conferences in legal innovation and technology. Her lecture focused on developing a comprehensive roadmap for integrating AI into law firms, emphasizing the importance of developing a robust AI strategy and fostering an innovation-ready culture. Key topics covered in the lecture included strategic planning, skills development, multidisciplinary teamwork, and strong AI governance.
Subscribe and stay up to date with the latest legal news, information and events . . .
© Norton Rose Fulbright LLP 2023