As defined at law, a gift is a voluntary transfer of property which a donor makes without expecting a benefit in return. A payment for the cost of a child's education in a religiously based school is not a gift. The part we treat as a gift is for the religious education only. We do this even though it gives an economic advantage to the students or their parents. We explain this policy in Information Circular 75-23, Tuition Fees and Charitable Donations Paid to Privately Supported Secular and Religious Schools .
Some charities try to let parents claim the full amount of tuition payments as gifts.
For example, a registered charity may ask a donor for money in exchange for both an official donation receipt and a charitable gift coupon . The donor then uses the coupon to pay tuition to the private school of the donor's child. The school then recovers the donor's money from the charity that issued the coupon. Funds that parents give to a charity in this way are not legally defined gifts, and we do not accept this practice. Other registered charities, often associated with private schools, set up a student aid fund and seek donations usually from the parents of children attending the school.