Tax Receipting for Events

It’s important you understand The Mustard Seed’s guidelines for tax receipting before you plan your event. Determine if tax receipts are important to the people participating in your event. If the answer is no, then you can save yourself and The Mustard Seed a lot of time by deciding not to offer them. If the answer is yes, then be sure to review the information below. It is your responsibility to establish appropriate expectations with your event’s participants and to communicate the details about how tax receipts will, or will not, be issued to them. Tax receipts are issued according to the Canada Revenue Agency’s and The Mustard Seed’s guidelines. If you have questions about tax receipting for your event, please contact [email protected].

Donations that are eligible for tax receipts:

Cash, cheque and credit card donations of $25 and over
• The Mustard Seed will issue a tax receipt to individuals or organizations who make a donation of $25 or more, provided that the donor does not receive any product, service, or value in exchange for the donation.
• In order for The Mustard Seed to issue tax receipts to your donors, you must provide us with their full names, their contact telephone numbers and their mailing addresses. Please use The Mustard Seed’s Special Events Donation Form to track your donations and to collect the personal information we require for tax receipting purposes.

Financial contributions that are not eligible for tax receipts:

Tickets, raffles, draws, auctions, or purchases of goods and services
The Mustard Seed will not issue tax receipts to individuals or organizations who purchase tickets to an event, tickets for a chance to win, specific items of value or goods and services.

Corporate event sponsorship
Businesses or corporations who sponsor an event, do not qualify for a tax receipt. In most cases, businesses can claim their contributions as a business expense instead for a greater tax benefit.

Coordinating a fundraiser
When a coordinator of a fundraiser collects funds from the general public and pays the total amount to a registered charity, the coordinator is not the person entitled to a charitable donation receipt. The coordinator of a fundraiser is an agent for the donors from whom the funds were collected. The property transferred to the charity is the property of the persons from whom the gifts were collected on the understanding it would be given to a charity.

Gifts of business or personal services
Gifts of business or personal services are not eligible for tax receipts. Examples of ineligible gifts include contributions of personal services such as time, skills and effort, donations of gift certificates issued by the donor, free advertising, free venue rentals, etc.

In-kind donations
The Mustard Seed does not typically issue tax receipts for in-kind donations collected at events. Some exceptions exist. Please contact [email protected] with any questions you may have about tax receipting for in-kind donations.