Government Briefing Bulletin - Budget 2011 Review

As expected, there were no significant changes in the reprise 2011 budget that Finance Minister Flaherty presented to Parliament yesterday.  In particular, the income tax proposals from the March 22 budget were reintroduced.  It was also announced that the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance would be asked to undertake a study of charitable donation incentives in the first session of this Parliament.  This is consistent with the following motion adopted by the House of Commons in the previous Parliament:

That the Standing Committee on Finance be instructed to undertake a study of the current tax incentives for charitable donations with a view to encouraging increased giving, including but not limited to (i) reviewing changes to the charitable tax credit amount, (ii) reviewing the possible extension of the capital gains exemption to private company shares and real estate when donated to a charitable organizations, (iii) considering the feasibility of