The 31 December deadline, and the four things about it people get wrong

One rule shapes the end of every Canadian giving year: to claim a gift on a given year's return, it has to have been made in that year. That is why the appeals arrive in the last week of December. In 2024, charities reported $26.10 billion in tax-receipted gifts between them.

The rule is real. Four things around it are more slippery than they look, and each is checkable against the CRA's own pages rather than against whatever your inbox says on 30 December.

1. "Made by 31 December" is a rule about a date the charity determines

The CRA's guidance sets out how the date of a gift is fixed:

For in-person donation or electronic transactions, the date of donation is the date the qualified donee receives the gift.

For donations sent by mail, we consider the date of the postmark on the envelope as the date of donation.

So an online donation at 11:50 p.m. on 31 December is a gift made on 31 December, because the charity receives it then. A cheque posted on 31 December is also a 31 December gift, because the postmark is what counts — and the charity is expected to keep the stamped envelope in its records. A cheque written on 31 December and posted on 2 January is a January gift.

2. You do not have to claim it this year

This is the piece that gets lost in the deadline framing. From the CRA:

You do not have to claim the eligible amount on your tax return for the current year. You may carry forward amounts on your return for any of the next 5 years.

Two consequences. The claim can be up to five years later — so a gift made in a low-income year can be claimed in a higher-income one. And the annual claim is capped: generally at 75% of net income for the year, which is what makes the carry-forward more than a curiosity for anyone giving a large amount at once.

One ordering rule is easy to trip over: "You must claim tax credits for gifts you carried forward from a previous year before you claim tax credits for gifts in the current year."

3. The first $200 is worth less than the rest — per year

The federal credit is tiered. For the 2026 tax year the CRA gives the rates as 14% on the first $200 of donations, 29% above that, and 33% to the extent the donor has income in the top federal bracket. Provincial and territorial credits sit on top and differ in every jurisdiction.

The $200 threshold resets each calendar year. The CRA also allows a gift made by either spouse or common-law partner to be claimed on either return, which is why couples commonly put both years' receipts on one. That is arithmetic, not advice: whether any of it applies to you depends on facts this site does not know. Our tax-credit estimator runs the same structure with current-year rates for every province and territory, and states what it does not model.

4. The receipt is not automatic, and neither is the deadline

Two assumptions worth retiring:

A charity does not have to give you a receipt. The CRA is blunt about it — "Although qualified donees can issue donation receipts, they are not required to provide one for your gift, so make sure to ask." If a receipt matters to you, ask before you give, not in March. When one is coming, you can expect it "by February 28 of the calendar year after your donation".

The deadline has moved once. For the 2024 tax year, after the Canada Post disruption, the federal government extended the period for gifts claimable on a 2024 return to 28 February 2025, and the CRA administered it. That was a one-off measure requiring legislation. Treat 31 December as the rule and any extension as news, never as a plan.

What this site can and cannot tell you in December

Here is the part that is specific to the data behind this page. 58.5% of the 2024 filings — 48,904 of 83,578 — have a fiscal year ending on 31 December. For most charities, then, a gift on 31 December lands on the last day of their financial year.

Which means it will be roughly eighteen months to two years before that gift appears in anything published. The figures on this site are from 2024 filings; they cannot describe a donation you are about to make, and they will not describe it for a long time. Why that lag exists is its own piece.

The useful move is the other order: look at what a charity has already filed before you give, not after. That is available now, it is the same data for every charity in the register, and it is the only thing about December giving that does not have a deadline.

For context on what those filings show about donations specifically: of the 62,620 2024 filings reporting both receipted gifts and total revenue, the median charity drew 43.2% of its revenue from tax-receipted gifts, and 28,995 of them drew half or more. Receipted giving is also concentrated — the largest 1,000 recipients took $16.07 billion of the $26.10 billion, about 62%. None of that says anything about any particular charity, which is rather the point: the register is not one kind of organisation, and a rule of thumb built on the biggest thousand will not describe the other sixty-two thousand.

Sources

• Date of donation, and the 2024 deadline extension: Extension of the deadline for making 2024 charitable donations — Canada Revenue Agency.
• Carry-forward, the 75% limit and the 2025 federal rates: Line 34900 – Donations and gifts: How much you can claim — Canada Revenue Agency.
• Receipts are not compulsory, and the February 28 expectation: What to know before you give — Canada Revenue Agency.
• The year rule and the spousal claim: Line 34900 – Donations and gifts: Who can claim — Canada Revenue Agency.
• Fiscal year ends, receipted-gift totals and shares computed from the CRA's List of charities open data, under the Open Government Licence – Canada. 2024 filings: 83,578, of which 48,904 (58.5%) have a December fiscal period end. Line 4500 reported on 63,215 filings; 62,834 report a positive amount totalling $26,095,689,424, of which the largest 1,000 account for $16,069,638,419. Median line 4500 as a share of line 4700, among the 62,620 filings reporting both with revenue above zero: 43.2%; 28,995 at 50% or more.