Cross-Border Charitable Donations: Can You Claim a Gift to a US or Canadian Charity on Your Return?

You can claim a donation to a charity in the other country, but only against income you earned there. Article XXI of the Canada-US treaty treats a gift to the other country’s charity as if it were domestic, then caps the relief at what you’d get if your only income were the income arising in that country. A Canadian donor’s claim is limited to 75% of net US-source income; a US donor applies the US percentage limits to Canadian-source income. Gifts to a college or university you or a family member attended escape the cap on both sides.

Can a Canadian resident claim a donation to a US charity?

Yes, if you have US-source income or the gift falls under one of the exceptions. Article XXI(7) of the treaty treats a gift to a US organization that’s exempt from US tax, and that could qualify as a registered charity if it were Canadian, as a gift to a registered charity, but limits the relief to what you’d get if your US-source income were your only income. The CRA’s guide P113 puts it as 75% of the net US-source income you report on your Canadian return.

• The treaty text, Article XXI(7), as replaced by the 1995 protocol and renumbered by the 2007 protocol: gifts to a US organization “that is generally exempt from United States tax and that could qualify in Canada as a registered charity if it were a resident of Canada and created or established in Canada, shall be treated as gifts to a registered charity,” with relief capped at “the amount of relief that would be available under the Income Tax Act if the only income of the resident for that year were the resident’s income arising in the United States.”
• The CRA’s P113, Gifts and Income Tax: “A gift made by a Canadian resident to a U.S. 501(c)(3) organization will generally be an eligible gift for purposes of computing the tax credit,” and “You can claim the eligible amount of your U.S. gifts up to 75% of the net U.S.-source income you report on your Canadian return.”
• Exception one, the school you attended: the treaty carves out “gifts to a college or university at which the resident or a member of the resident’s family is or was enrolled,” and P113 confirms the claim “will not be restricted to net U.S. source income” for those gifts.
• Exception two, registered US universities: ITA 149.1(1) makes “a university outside Canada, the student body of which ordinarily includes students from Canada, that has applied for registration” a qualified donee in its own right, so a gift to one is a domestic gift with no source-income cap.
• Exception three, the commuter rule: under ITA 118.1(9), a Canadian who lived near the border all year, commuted to a principal place of employment or business in the US, and had that job or business as their chief source of income treats gifts to US charities that would be deductible under the Internal Revenue Code as gifts to a registered charity. P113 says the claim then runs to “75% of your net world income.”

Can a US resident deduct a donation to a Canadian charity?

Yes, if you have Canadian-source income, and the deduction is capped by applying the US percentage limits to that income. IRC 170(c) only covers organizations created or organized in the US, so the treaty is the only door. Article XXI(6) treats a contribution to a Canadian organization that’s exempt from Canadian tax, and that could receive deductible contributions if it were a US organization, as a charitable contribution, but outside the enrolled-school exception it can’t exceed the US percentage limits applied to your Canadian-source income.

• IRC 170(c)(2)(A) limits the domestic deduction to an organization “created or organized in the United States or in any possession thereof, or under the law of the United States, any State, the District of Columbia, or any possession of the United States.”
• Article XXI(6): contributions “by a citizen or resident of the United States to an organization which is resident in Canada, which is generally exempt from Canadian tax and which could qualify in the United States to receive deductible contributions if it were resident in the United States shall be treated as charitable contributions,” but “shall not be deductible in any taxable year to the extent that they exceed an amount determined by applying the percentage limitations of the laws of the United States in respect of the deductibility of charitable contributions to the income of such citizen or resident arising in Canada.”
• IRS Publication 597: “If your return does not include gross income from Canadian sources, charitable contributions to Canadian organizations are generally not deductible.” Publication 526 says the same in one line: “To deduct your contribution to a Canadian charity, you must generally have income from sources in Canada.”
• A US citizen living in Canada gets the same cap. Publication 597’s own example is “a U.S. citizen living in Canada” and tells that person to “multiply your adjusted gross income from Canadian sources by the percentage limit.”

The paragraph numbers moved in the 2007 protocol, which renumbered paragraphs 4, 5 and 6 as 5, 6 and 7. In the current text paragraph 6 is the US side and paragraph 7 is the Canadian side; writing that cites XXI(5) and XXI(6) for these rules is using the pre-2007 numbering. The treaty article is explained more broadly in the Canada-US treaty guide.

What counts as income from the charity’s country?

The treaty caps the relief by reference to income “arising in” the charity’s country, and each side measures it with its own rules. On the Canadian return it’s the net US-source income you actually report, which generally means US employment income, net rent from US property, US business income, and US dividends and interest. On the US return it’s your adjusted gross income from Canadian sources. Income that isn’t sourced to the charity’s country can’t help, because it isn’t in the base.

	Canadian donor giving to a US charity	US donor giving to a Canadian charity
Treaty paragraph	Article XXI(7)	Article XXI(6)
Charity test	Exempt from US tax and could be a registered charity if Canadian (a 501(c)(3) generally passes per P113)	Exempt from Canadian tax and could receive deductible contributions if a US organization
The cap	Relief you’d get if US-source income were your only income; P113: 75% of net US-source income	US percentage limits (60% of AGI for cash to public charities, 30% for capital gain property) applied to Canadian-source AGI
Exceptions	School you or family attended; CRA-registered US universities (ITA 149.1); commuter rule (ITA 118.1(9))	School you or family attended
Form of relief	Non-refundable credit, 14% on the first $200, 29% above, 33% on the part matched by top-bracket income	Itemized deduction on Schedule A, worth your marginal rate
Domestic ceiling	75% of net income, with a five-year carryforward	60% of AGI for cash, five-year carryforward; from 2026, only the part above 0.5% of AGI counts
Paperwork	The charity’s receipt, proof it’s a 501(c)(3), Schedule 9	Contemporaneous written acknowledgment for $250 or more, Form 8283 over $500 of property, Form 8833 for the treaty position

The domestic ceilings come from ITA 118.1(1) (the “total gifts” formula starts at 0.75 times income) and IRC 170(b)(1)(G) (cash contributions up to “60 percent of the taxpayer’s contribution base”). The 0.5% floor is IRC 170(b)(1)(I), added by P.L. 119-21 for tax years beginning after December 31, 2025. What the credit and deduction are worth, and how to give for the best result, is covered in cross-border charitable giving strategies.

How do you claim it and what paperwork do you need?

On the Canadian return the gift goes on Schedule 9 with your other donations, and you keep the US charity’s receipt plus proof that it’s a 501(c)(3). On the US return the gift goes on Schedule A as an itemized deduction, we disclose the treaty position on Form 8833, and the normal substantiation rules apply: a contemporaneous written acknowledgment for any gift of $250 or more, Form 8283 for property over $500, and a qualified appraisal over $5,000 unless the property is publicly traded securities.

• IRC 170(f)(8): “No deduction shall be allowed under subsection (a) for any contribution of $250 or more unless the taxpayer substantiates the contribution by a contemporaneous written acknowledgment of the contribution by the donee organization.” Publication 526 says you must have it by the earlier of the date you file or the due date including extensions.
• IRC 170(f)(11): no deduction for property “for which a deduction of more than $500 is claimed” without a description with the return, and a qualified appraisal where “a deduction of more than $5,000 is claimed,” with an exception for “publicly traded securities.”
• A Canadian charity’s official receipt follows Regulation 3501, which requires “a description of the advantage, if any, in respect of the gift and the amount of that advantage,” but the US acknowledgment has its own required contents under IRC 170(f)(8)(B), so a US donor should ask the Canadian charity for an acknowledgment written to the US test as well.
• Regulation 301.6114-1 requires disclosure when “a taxpayer takes a return position that any treaty of the United States … overrules or modifies any provision of the Internal Revenue Code and thereby effects (or potentially effects) a reduction of any tax.” A Canadian-charity deduction is that kind of position, so our practice is to attach Form 8833.
• P113: “If you are filing a paper return, include your Schedule 9, Donations and Gifts, but keep your official donation receipts in case the CRA asks to see them.”

How much is a cross-border donation actually worth?

For a Canadian donor the credit uses the same federal formula as a domestic gift, 14% on the first $200 and 29% on the rest, with 33% on the part of the gift matched by income taxed in the top bracket, plus the provincial credit, applied to the amount that survives the cap. For a US donor the deduction is worth your marginal rate, and only if you itemize. Run the cap first, then the credit or deduction.

The credit formula is ITA 118.1(3), where the rate on the first $200 is the lowest federal rate (14% under ITA 117(2) for taxation years after 2024), the rate on the top slice is the highest rate (33%), and the middle rate is 29%. The 2026 standard deduction figures are from the IRS’s 2026 inflation adjustments; for 2025 returns they were $15,750 single and $31,500 joint.

What should I do next?

Before you give, write down where the income comes from and whether the charity fits an exception. If you’re a Canadian with no US-source income, look for the school you attended, a CRA-registered US university, or a Canadian “friends of” charity that funds the same cause. If you’re a US filer with Canadian income, size the gift to the percentage limit on that income and ask the charity for a US-style acknowledgment. If you file in both countries, the donation interacts with your foreign tax credit, and that’s worth running both returns together before the gift goes out.

• Cross-border charitable giving strategies, the companion guide on shares versus cash, dual-qualified charities and the 2026 US changes
• Form 1116 and the foreign tax credit, how a Canadian credit changes the US credit
• Standard deduction or itemizing for cross-border filers, the hurdle a US deduction has to clear
• When you need Form 8833, the disclosure that goes with the treaty deduction
• Canada vs US tax rates, the marginal rates that set what a deduction is worth

This guide is general information, not tax advice for your specific situation. Which points apply, and how, depends on your facts.