With just one week left to answer the HMRC Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) consultation the Sport and Recreation Alliance has uploaded its first draft response for members’ feedback.
Since the CASC scheme was first set up in 2002, more than 6,300 clubs have registered with HMRC and have saved an estimated £125 million in business rate relief as well as over £12 million in Gift Aid.
However, the Alliance has a number of concerns regarding the proposed changes to the legislation including:
- the cost of participation and whether it’s affordable to the whole community
- the levels of income that can be generated from non-sporting activities
- when CASCs can pay players
- what travel and subsistence costs can be paid by CASCs
- whether or not to allow corporate Gift Aid.
The Alliance is comfortable with formalising HMRC’s current rule of thumb which states that 50% of a club’s members should be participating in the club’s sport.
By having a majority of participating members, a club should then be able to demonstrate that it has the promotion of amateur sport as its main purpose – provided the definition of participating captures volunteers, officials, coaches as well as those playing sport sporadically.
The Alliance also strongly supports the proposal to enable CASCs to claim Gift Aid on corporate donations as they will provide an additional source of revenue for some clubs which could prove vital during these difficult financial times for sports clubs.
The Alliance will be sending its final consultation response to HMRC on Friday 9 August.
If you have any issues with the proposed response or would like to suggest any amendments, please contact David Foster by 14:00 on Thursday 9 August.
