Friday, October 30, 2009

Some essential sources for directors of non-profits

Building a new not-for-profit organization: How to approach risk management. (HTML)
Paulette VinetteBy Paulette Vinette, CAE

Organization and Management of Nonprofits.
Charity Village (assorted authors)

Governance DO'S & DON'TS: Lessons from Case Studies on Twenty Canadian Non-profits. (PDF)
Mel Gill

Primer for Directors of Not for Profit Corporations (online HTML version).
Primer for Directors of Not for Profit Corporations (PDF version).
Co-ordinating Editor: Peter Broder. Text Editor: Norah McClintock. Contributors: Wayne Amundson; Jane Burke-Robertson; Terrance Carter; Jacqueline Connor; Paul Martel; David Stevens.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Precision often annoys people

Lawyers often get taken to task for our attention to detail and our precision with words. It's occasionally very vexing: nobody complains when a surgeon puts the knife in exactly the right spot, or feels hard done by when their contractor's woodwork meets just where it should. However, a lawyer often seems taken to task for getting our words Just So; it's seen as, well, sharp in the unpleasant sense of the word. You take the bad with the good in a job like this, but it's always a little comforting when somebody "gets it" so it was fun to come across this quote:

“It requires as much caution to tell the truth as to conceal it.”

Baltasar Gracian

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

HST Transitional Rules

"The 2009 Ontario Budget proposed a comprehensive package of tax changes. Central to this tax package is the proposed Harmonized Sales Tax for Ontario (HST), which, subject to legislative approval, would come into effect on July 1, 2010.

"This Notice provides details of proposed measures that would build on Ontario’s comprehensive tax package and help consumers and businesses transition to the HST.

"The Notice provides general descriptions of transitional rules for the HST that will be proposed to be enacted in the federal Excise Tax Act (ETA). It also provides general descriptions of provincial measures that will be proposed to be enacted to wind down the applicable provisions of the Ontario Retail Sales Tax Act (RSTA)."

For further information please see the Ontario Ministry of Revenue page on the HST at:
http://www.rev.gov.on.ca/en/taxchange/index.html

This PDF is available for download here.

HST Transitional Rules

The HST and you

I recently attended a seminar on the new HST at this year's Bridges to Better Business event. The talk, given by a cheerful and helpful Mr. Jeremy Bertrand of the Ontario Ministry of Revenue, was very valuable, hitting many of the key questions we have about the new harmonized sales tax which is replacing the old provincial sale tax (PST).

Mr. Bertrand was kind enough to send me a PDF of his PowerPoint presentation ... and you can download it by right-clicking here.

I will be posting on some key points from that presentation later in this week.

For those of you who would prefer to read it online, here is the same presentation uploaded to ScribD. My thanks go to Mr. Jeremy Bertrand for the Ministry's permission to upload this to the Camberwell House site in furtherance of their goal of educating businesses about the new tax.

Ontario Min Rev HST FINAL 2009 09-Dms