A recent investigation by the CBC’s The Fifth Estate found that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Canada (The Church) sends upwards of $100 million per year to their private Brigham Young University campuses in the United States. Over a period of about 15 years, The Church has sent more than $1 billion to those private universities. As a registered charity, these donations have cost the federal treasury $280 million in taxation revenue.

Current legislation allows registered charities in Canada to send funds to qualified donees in other countries, and the Brigham Young University campuses are currently on the list of qualified donees. However, the intent of sending funds to these types of organizations is to benefit Canadians. What The Fifth Estate found was that only 1.6% of the total BYU student body is Canadian; of the approximately 85,000 students there are only about 1,400 Canadian students attending. In 2021, The Church sent more than $93 million to BYU campuses in the USA, providing a financial benefit of more than $66,000 per Canadian student.

While the transfer of funds to these universities is legal, the benefit to Canadian students attending BYU is disproportionate to the benefit Canadian students would receive from funding here in Canada. The Church in Canada has not disclosed if they provide similar funding to Canadian students attending domestic post-secondary institutions, but it is confirmed that The Church has only donated to their private universities in the USA and no other qualified donee in the last 5 years.

Since The Fifth Estate brought attention to this issue, there are strong opinions that The Church is abusing a tax loophole to send money out of Canada and is doing so at the expense of generous tax credits which have reduced federal revenues. There are also concerns that other organizations are doing the same.

To prevent further abuse and improve transparency, I propose the the Government of Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency make the following changes:

• Create and make public a separate list of qualified donees for foreign post-secondary institutions 
• Cap donations made to foreign post-secondary universities at $5,000 per Canadian student (who would ordinarily reside in Canada) attending
• Ensure that qualified donees do not have institutionalized policies or procedures that violate Canadian values, Charter Rights, or the Canadian Human Rights Commission
• Require registered charities with more than $5,000,000 in receipted donations provide the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) with audited financial statements with their T3010 Charity Return and made public.

Sources
News article: “Mormon Church in Canada moved $1B out of the country tax free – and it’s legal” (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/mormon-church-jesus-christ-latter-day-saints-funds-charity-1.6630190

Video documentary: “The Mormon’s Books” (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/the-mormons-books-1.6627265

Registered charity information: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Canada (https://apps.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/hacc/srch/pub/dsplyRprtngPrd?q.srchNmFltr=the+church+of+jesus+christ+of+latter+day+saints&q.stts=0007&selectedCharityBn=826344632RR0001&dsrdPg=1