Donations and tax receipts

Gathrings does not issue tax receipts, and cannot. If your donors need official receipts for their taxes, you have to issue them yourself.

This catches people out, so it's worth being precise about.

What donors actually get

Every donor receives a donation receipt by email immediately after paying. It confirms the amount, the date, and who it went to.

That's a confirmation of payment, not an official donation receipt for income tax purposes. It has no registration number on it and the CRA won't accept it as one.

Who can issue an official receipt

In Canada, only a charity registered with the CRA can issue official donation receipts, and it issues them itself, under its own registration number, following the CRA's rules on what a receipt must contain.

Gathrings isn't your charity and can't issue receipts on your behalf. Neither can Stripe.

If you are a registered charity

You can still use Gathrings to collect donations — plenty of registered charities do. You'll just need to issue receipts through whatever process you already use.

The donations overview under Settings → Donations gives you totals, but it doesn't give you a donor list with names and addresses, which is what receipting requires. Plan for that: either collect what you need separately, or reconcile against your Stripe dashboard, which does hold the payer details.

If you are not a registered charity

Most community groups aren't, and that's fine — you can accept donations regardless. You cannot issue tax receipts, and your donors can't claim their gifts.

Tell them before they give, not after. A line in your appeal does it:

We're not a registered charity, so donations aren't tax-deductible.

It costs you almost nothing. Finding out in April costs you a donor.

Two things that are not the same as being a charity

Choosing "Non-profit" during Stripe onboarding. That's Stripe classifying your business type. It has nothing to do with CRA registration and does not let you issue receipts.

Being incorporated as a non-profit. Also not the same thing. Incorporation and charitable registration are separate processes; a great many incorporated non-profits are not registered charities.

The only thing that matters is whether the CRA has given you a charitable registration number.

If you're unsure

Check whether your organization appears in the CRA's List of charities. If it doesn't, you're not registered, and you shouldn't imply to donors that their gift is deductible.