Two religious charities on opposite sides of the country are currently suspended from issuing tax receipts for donations after auditors uncovered serious problems with their record-keeping.

The Apostolic Ark Pentecostal Church of Calgary and Congregation Toldos Yakov Yosef in Montreal are both subject to year-long suspensions after auditors with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) found they’d failed to maintain adequate books and records.

The Calgary church’s suspension began in January, when it was also ordered to pay a $25,784 fine for providing “undue benefits” to an unidentified person.

Any further description of those undue benefits has been redacted in a Dec. 29, 2025 letter outlining the reasons for the suspension and penalty provided by the CRA. But the notice said the church had failed to live up to a 2017 compliance agreement, and a recent audit found “repeat non-compliance in that the organization failed to maintain adequate books and records.”

Some of the problems included failing to document loans properly, keep minutes for board meetings, provide complete donation lists and document all bank withdrawals.

Meanwhile, Congregation Toldos Yakov Yosef, a Hasidic synagogue, has been suspended since February. The synagogue also signed a compliance agreement with the CRA in 2017, according to a Feb. 5 notice, but it violated a condition that required it to stop loaning money to a connected organization called Foundation Toldos Yakov Yosef.

The compliance agreement had mandated the congregation to create a schedule for the loans to be reimbursed at a reasonable interest rate, and to keep the required records about that plan.

None of that happened, and in the meantime, the value of the loans has exploded, according to auditors.

“As of June 30, 2015, the loan balance stood at $2,600,863. By June 30, 2021, it had increased to $5,241,950 — effectively doubling. This trend continued, with the balance reaching $10,782,114 as of June 30, 2024,” the CRA notice says.

“The organization failed to provide an adequate explanation for its failure to implement the agreed upon corrective measures, nor did it provide sufficient documentation to address and alleviate our concerns.”

In its response to auditors’ concerns, the charity said the loan was for charitable purposes and it was working to correct the bookkeeping problems, but the CRA found it had already had plenty of time to do that work since the 2017 agreement.

Neither charity responded to requests for comment.

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