HMRC wants views to improve CASC scheme for grassroots clubs

HMRC has launched a public consultation on the Community Amateur Sports Club scheme. The document can be found on the HMRC website and will run for ten weeks until 12 August.

It’s the culmination of several years of advocacy work led by the Sport and Recreation Alliance, working with HMRC to try and iron out some of the technical issues hampering the scheme.

For some time the Alliance has been lobbying for improvements so that more sports clubs can be encouraged to register and receive benefits like business rate relief and the ability to claim Gift Aid.

The Alliance feels that sport should broadly welcome HMRC’s decision to revisit the CASC legislation and make the most of this opportunity to shape future CASC policy.

However, sport should also be aware of the possible negative implications of some of the Government’s new proposals.

The Alliance is also disappointed that the Government is not planning to take forward a number of our suggested improvements to the scheme.

The CASC consultation – what you need to know

• Proposals to allow more generous travel expenses and to formalise small payments to players are positive developments, as are those to allow Gift Aid on corporate donations and to increase the trading income threshold for corporation tax.
• However, the consultation raises two key eligibility conditions that previously have not been a major consideration when allowing clubs in to the scheme:

Level of membership fees
HMRC is proposing a cap on membership fee levels (including all participation costs) above which a club will have to make provisions to ensure that its fees are still affordable to everyone in the community.

Level of social (ie non-sporting) income
This will effectively limit the amount of social income (eg bar and restaurant income, venue hire etc) that can be generated by a club.

Different sports may be affected to varying degrees by these proposals but some clubs could potentially be adversely affected (although ultimately there should be the option to establish a trading subsidiary to enable all clubs to remain in the scheme).

Sport will also need to be aware of plans to define a social member and a guest for the purposes of the scheme.

HMRC is encouraging as many people as possible to engage with the consultation process and we urge national governing bodies (NGBs) to respond and push this out to their CASC registered clubs.

If NGBs are able to support their clubs by coordinating their responses and providing guidance on how to complete the consultation it will ensure that sport provides coherent, good quality responses to HMRC to ultimately help our cause.

Workshops and guidance

The Alliance is providing more detailed guidance on how to answer the consultation – to be published on our website in due course.

We also plan to host a roundtable workshop in conjunction with Bates Wells and Braithwaite to discuss the key issues and messages that stakeholders might want to convey to the Government.

If you are interested in attending this workshop or would like any further information contact David Foster.

For media enquiries contact Libby Jellie on 020 7976 3933.
 

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