How to Register a Non-Profit in Canada

If you are hoping to register a nonprofit in Canada, chances are you already know the difference between a charity and a non profit.

Maybe you’re hoping to register a professional association, or an amateur sports club, or even a child care facility for your local school. Whatever the type of organization, it’s being created to serve the community in some way, and not to make a profit. But it’s also not an organization that is entirely focused on a selfless goal.

Even if you’ve established that though, there are still a lot of steps between you and having an officially registered nonprofit. So here’s a little more information about what lies ahead.

1. Incorporate

Before you canregister as a non profit, you first have to have an official organization, and that means you need to incorporate. You can do this yourself, online, or through a lawyer, and which one will be best really depends how complicated the circumstances are.

If there is nothing complicated about your registration, and you are confident you can fill in a basic form, you can purchase a template kit or do an online registration. If not, or there is any kind of confusion at all, it’s best to talk to a professional. Once your articles of incorporation are completed and filed, it can be quite tricky and time consuming to make any changes.

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2. Your First Directors Meeting

Once you have incorporated your not for profit, you need to hold your first directors meeting, and during that meeting, you need to establish your bylaws. You also need to appoint officers, establish a reporting framework, decide on banking issues and various other administrative tasks.

All these things also need to be documented, and many of them need to be submitted to Corporations Canada in order to be granted not for profit status.

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3. Get Your Taxes In Order

Registered charities are automatically exempt from income tax in Canada, but not for profits are not.

So once you haveregistered your corporation and set up the administrative and reportingstructure, you will still need to contact CRA to make sure you are registeredas required, and to find out when you need to report your earnings, and whichprocess to use.

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4. Take Care of Local Regulations

Registering a nonprofit federally and with the CRA is not the end of the process in most cases. Most provinces and territories also have requirements to register your organization, so you will need to find out what they are and complete the necessary documentation and submissions.

Many larger municipalities and cities also have their own requirements, including business licenses, permits and other kinds of regulations and fees. All these also need to be completed and kept current to operate your not for profit legally.

There is a government service called BizPal that can help you to determine what kind of registrations and permits you need to have done to operate in your area. Remember that if you plan to have more than one office in different cities or provinces, you will have to do some of these for each location you operate in.

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Where to Find Help

The good news is that while it can seem like a maze to get from idea to registered not for profit organization, there are places you can go for help.

The Government of Canada, provincial and municipal websites all have information related to registering various types of corporation, including not for profits. CRA also has many resources you can use to navigate the system.

Chartered accounts and lawyers can all help in setting up corporations, and in completing all the paperwork you need done. They can also advise you on the best structure and on all the technicalities that you might not be aware of and will know the process to submit and file the various documents you need to complete.

If your not for profit is very simple, and there are no complex issues to handle, there are several “off the shelf” options for incorporating businesses, as well as websites where you can enter your information and generate a very simple document. These are always based on the very minimum requirements though.

Whichever method you choose to register you non profit, take your time with this part of the process. If you make a mistake and need to make changes later, there will almost certainly be an additional fee for amendments.