6. Summary of Complaint A-063932 This FOI request (A-063932) was a follow-up to our original inquiry where we requested the names of the organizations that received letters regarding the limitation imposed on registered charities in regards to partisan political activities under subsection 149.1(6.1) and (6.2) of the Income Tax Act. CRA informed us that the names of the organizations could not be released, so we requested the following in our FOI request dated February 6, 2013: “All records relating to the decision to send letters to registered charities reminding them of the limitations imposed on registered charities in regards to partisan political activities under subsection 149.1(6.1) and (6.2) of the Income Tax Act. Please include policy documents, reports, briefing notes, meeting notes, communication (e-mail messages and other correspondence) and any other relevant records. Please also include documents that:
• outline how those organizations that received reminder letters were identified to or by CRA staff
• demonstrate how staff determined that these organizations should indeed receive a reminder letter, including the criteria used to determine partisan political activity,
• clarify whether any organizations that were identified did not, in fact, receive a reminder letter
Though your office has advised us that you are not able to release the names of the organizations that received the letters for confidentiality reasons, for each organization that received one of the above letters please include:
1.
The charity type
2.
The category in which the charity works.
For example, Canadian Mennonite Publishing Service is listed as follows: Charity Type: Religion Category: Missionary Organizations and Propagation of Gospel”
The response we received on August 1, 2013 1 did not meet our request for information nor did it provide adequate reasons for failing to do so. Please see the chart on the following page which outlines the substance of our complaint. Please note that we were advised by ATIP CRA staff by telephone that fewer than 10 organizations received a reminder letter from CRA, so this request would not be too onerous to collect.
1 We have filed a separate complaint about the failure of the CRA to meet its statutory obligations in responding to requests for information within the required timeframe. 1
Details of complaint re: A-063932 Our Request 1. All records relating to the decision to send letters to registered charities reminding them of the limitations imposed on registered charities in regards to partisan political activities under subsection 149.1(6.1) and (6.2) of the Income Tax Act. Please include policy documents, reports, briefing notes, meeting notes, communication (e-mail messages and other correspondence) and any other relevant records.
CRA response “We were informed by officials from the Charities Directorate that because you are not an authorized representative of the organizations that would have received reminder letters relating to partisan political activities, they are prevented from disclosing protected taxpayer information without proper authorization should it exist.”
Our complaint a) We believe that it is impossible that all internal communications related to this matter would be considered protected taxpayer information. Given the additional budget allocated to the enforcement of this policy in 2012, we believe that there must be records of internal briefings, meetings, emails and direction to CRA staff that are not organization specific.
b) We believe that there must also be internal communications (emails etc.) specifically related to sending reminder letters to organizations that can be released. Where any of this documentation does, in fact, include protected taxpayer information, the CRA can simply redact this information.
2. Documents that outline how those organizations that received reminder letters were identified to or by CRA staff
2
“We have enclosed a copy of the requested information. When you review this document, you will note some shaded areas where the information has been removed. These areas are exempted from disclosure under paragraph 16(1)(c) of the Act. A copy of this provision is enclosed for your reference.”
a) The document provided was a copy of
“Reminder Letter Guidelines”, attached here. Para 16(1)(c) is used when the disclosure of information will be injurious to the enforcement of law. We believe it is highly unlikely that releasing the redacted information in the guidelines (information that would allow groups to ensure that they remain within CRA rules)
Our Request
CRA response
Our complaint would be injurious to the enforcement of law. Indeed, these should be publicly available to all charitable groups.
b) The original request also related to how the organizations were “identified” to or by staff, which was ignored in the CRA response. This could include information such as emails that respond to external sources when an organization was identified to CRA staff, or emails/meeting notes between CRA staff when staff identified the organization during their investigations. Any identifying information can be redacted.
3. Documents that demonstrate how staff determined that these organizations should indeed receive a reminder letter, including the criteria used to determine partisan political activity
4. Documents that clarify whether any organizations that were identified did not, in fact, receive a reminder letter 3
CRA grouped the first part of this request with #2, above. They responded to the second part, “criteria used to determine partisan political activity” as follows: “the Charities Directorate advised that employees are currently using the Policy Statement CPS-022 Political Activities, available at….”
“the Charities Directorate advised that such records do not exist”
a) This is a distinct request from #2, which was not addressed in their response. CRA did not indicate which aspects of the Policy Statement were used to determine that any given organization was in violation of limits to political activity. We believe that it is possible to disclose the activities undertaken by the charities that received reminder letters without revealing their names or other identifying information.
a) Because the policy statement states that it is a general guide only, we find it highly unlikely that there are no internal
Our Request
CRA response
5. Though your office has advised us that you are not able to release the names of the organizations that received the letters for confidentiality reasons, for each organization that received one of the above letters please include:
•
The charity type
•
The category in which the charity works. For example, Canadian Mennonite Publishing Service is listed as follows: Charity Type: Religion Category: Missionary Organizations and Propagation of Gospel
4
“The Canada Revenue Agency does not maintain records in this manner”
Our complaint communications (emails, meeting notes etc.) that include discussion of organizations that were identified as possibly having contravened the guidelines, but who in the end did not receive a reminder letter. Any identifying information may be redacted. The alternative would be to state that all organizations who were identified to/by staff received a reminder letter. a) We do not believe this to be the case. The CRA does indeed maintain records in this manner on the Charities website, where profiles of every organization with charitable status contain both “charity type” and “category”. We provided an example in our request. The link to the website is here: http://www.craarc.gc.ca/chrts-gvng/lstngs/menueng.html
5