Webinar Recording: Community Food Program Donation Tax Credit
Posted: November 12, 2014
Categories: Food Access / GoodFoodBites / News from Sustain Ontario / Webinars
A recording of the Community Food Program Donation Tax Credit webinar, that took place on October 23rd, 2014, is now available for online viewing.
The webinar discussed details and logistics of the recently introduced Community Food Program Donation Tax Credit, a part of the Local Food Act 2013. This tax credit offers the opportunity for farmers who donate agricultural products to eligible community food programs to now receive a tax credit of 25% of the fair market value of the donated product.
The discussion featured a presentation by Ziyaad Vahed, Senior Policy Advisor from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs who addressed questions of logistics and gave context to the bill. Bill Laidlaw, Executive Director of the Ontario Association of Food Banks and Karen Eatwell, President of the National Farmers Union Ontario also offered perspective and answered participants’ questions on the how the tax credit will effect farmers and food banks. The discussion was moderated by Kathryn Scharf of Community Food Centres Canada.
Questions were raised as to how to best assess “fair market value,” how an eligible agricultural product is defined, and what flexibility exists to adapt the tax credit. As it stands, for donations of under $1000, community food programs and farmers are encouraged to work together and do the necessary (but not burdensome) research to decide on the fair market value understanding that a fair market value is essentially “the price of that good that someone would be willing to pay for it.” Eligible agricultural products for this tax credit are defined broadly and based on previous regulations, emphasizing fresh over processed foods (“processed no more than to the extent necessary so that, in Ontario, it is permitted to be legally sold”). As of yet, seeds are not considered eligible for this tax credit. The discussion also included potential challenges for storage of produce donations and how gleaned goods will be considered. Ziyaad also shared that a broader assessment of the tax credit (the uptake, use, and possible tweaking of the program) will happen over the coming year.
We would like to thank the presenters for sharing their insights and experiences. Thank you all who were able to participate in the event and to those who asked questions. Feedback from the webinar was positive and we are eager to see how the tax credit enables more collaborative work between farms and community food programs. For those unable to attend, the slides from Ziyaad Vahed’s presentation are available on SlideShare.net/Sustain_Ontario.
The webinar was the first in a series of educational webinars and discussions of the Food Access Peer Learning Circle (PLC), a project of Healthy Food for All: Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems in Ontario. The Food Access PLC hopes to be an avenue to strengthen existing collaborative networks, support initiatives on a variety of food access topics, share tools, resources, and best practices, and come to a place of agreement for government and the network to move forward on.
We are working on putting together a schedule for more food access related webinars over the next few months. If you have any questions about this webinar or would like to get involved in the Food Access Peer Learning Circle please contact Bronwyn Clement, bronwyn@sustainontario.ca.