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Official donation receipts in Canada

What the Canada Revenue Agency asks an official donation receipt to show, when to send receipts, how to send them by email, and how to replace one, for mosques that are registered charities.

For treasurers and boards of mosques in Canada. This guide is general information about record-keeping, not tax advice.

Is a receipt required?

No. The CRA says there is no requirement in the Income Tax Act for a registered charity to issue an official donation receipt, or to issue one within a certain time. But donors need an official receipt to claim their gifts, so households expect one, and the CRA suggests issuing them by February 28 of the year after the gift.

Only a registered charity or another qualified donee can issue official donation receipts. A mosque that isn’t registered with the CRA can thank its donors, but it can’t give them receipts for income tax purposes.

One receipt for the year, or one for each gift

A charity may issue receipts through the year, or one cumulative receipt for the year’s cash gifts. Each non-cash gift, such as donated furniture, needs a receipt of its own.

What the receipt shows

The CRA lists thirteen things a receipt for a cash gift must have:

  1. A statement that it is an official receipt for income tax purposes.
  2. The mosque’s name and address as on file with the CRA.
  3. A unique serial number.
  4. The registration number the CRA issued.
  5. Where the receipt was issued: the city, town or municipality.
  6. The date or year the gift was received.
  7. The date the receipt was issued.
  8. The donor’s full name, including middle initial, and address.
  9. The amount of the gift.
  10. The amount and description of any advantage the donor received.
  11. The eligible amount of the gift.
  12. The signature of a person the mosque has authorized to acknowledge gifts.
  13. The CRA’s name and website address.

Two of them are easy to get wrong. Envelopes often carry only a family name, so check each donor’s full name, middle initial and address before January. And serial numbers must be unique: one unbroken series, never reused.

When the donor gets something back

If a donor received an advantage, such as a meal at a fundraising dinner, the receipt shows its amount and description, and the eligible amount is what is left of the gift after it. The CRA explains how in its guidance on split receipting and on fundraising events.

Fees aren’t gifts

Weekend school fees and hall rentals pay for a service. Keep them in separate records from gifts from the start, and ask the mosque’s accountant, or the CRA’s guidance, before receipting anything that bought something.

Receipts by email

The CRA’s precautions for emailed receipts: protect them from hackers with appropriate software, send them in a read-only or non-editable format, encrypt them and sign them with an electronic signature kept under the control of a person the mosque has authorized, and keep copies of every receipt sent. Computer-generated receipts are fine as long as their data can’t be altered and is protected from unauthorized access, they are clear and complete, and a paper copy can be printed on request.

Replacing a lost or wrong receipt

Issue a replacement with all the required information, the serial number of the original receipt and a statement that it replaces the original. Keep the mosque’s copy of the original and mark it “cancelled”. If a receipt was prepared but never sent, the mosque can make a new one instead, but keeps both copies of the original, marked “cancelled”.

A routine for January and February

  1. Close the year. Make sure December’s last count is locked and deposited, and that every online gift has arrived.
  2. Check the donors. Full names with middle initials, and current addresses.
  3. Number the receipts in one series, and check five of them by hand against the year’s count sheets and bank records.
  4. Sign and send them by February 28, on paper or by email with the CRA’s precautions, and keep a copy of each.
  5. Keep the cancelled originals of any receipt that was replaced.

The receipts also feed the mosque’s annual return: a registered charity files its T3010 within six months of its fiscal year end.

Sources: the CRA’s pages What information must be on an official donation receipt, When should a charity issue a receipt?, Correcting or replacing official donation receipts and Computer-generated receipts, read 28 October 2026, and Filing the T3010, read 23 October 2026. The mosque’s accountant can say how the rules apply to it.

Common questions

Does a mosque in Canada have to issue donation receipts?

No. The CRA says the Income Tax Act doesn’t require a registered charity to issue official donation receipts. Donors need them to claim their gifts, though, and the CRA suggests issuing them by February 28 of the following year.

Can a mosque issue one receipt for a year of gifts?

Yes, for cash gifts: the CRA allows one cumulative receipt for the year. Each non-cash gift needs a receipt of its own.

Can official donation receipts be sent by email?

Yes, with the CRA’s precautions: a read-only format, protection from hackers, encryption and an electronic signature kept under the control of an authorized person, and a copy of every receipt kept.

How does a mosque replace a lost donation receipt?

By issuing a replacement with all the required information, the original receipt’s serial number and a statement that it replaces the original, and marking the mosque’s copy of the original “cancelled”.

Official donation receipts for Canada are planned for Ahsan. Today its statements outside the US are a plain thank-you, and the live demo’s sample mosque is in the US. More about giving in Ahsan.