A Prospective Anti-Church Tax Plan Would Punish the Poor

Cyclists ride past Canada Revenue Agency headquarters in Ottawa on Aug. 17, 2020. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick11/7/2025|Updated: 11/7/2025CommentaryWhen Parliament’s finance committee slipped Recommendation 430 into its 2025 pre-budget report, few noticed. Yet the clause proposing to delete “advancement of religion” from Canada’s definition of charity could transform the country’s social landscape. If adopted, every church, synagogue, mosque, and temple would be taxed like a business and lose its authority to issue receipts to donors.Anna Farrow is a Montreal-based journalist for The Catholic Register.Author’s Selected Articles