CASC Approval of clubs

[pennineway.fswo]

If any of you target shooters belong to a club that has CASC approval (Community Amateur Sports Club) then you are effectively treated like a charity as far as the IR are concerned

One way therefore to raise money (as a gift from the tax man) is to agree to pay reasonable travelling expenses to those members of the club who maintain and supervise your ranges and club house. 30-40p/mile seems to be quite acceptable
The recipients then donate these expenses back to the club and inform the IR of the donations by completing a gift aid form
The Tax man then gives your club 28% of the donations.

This can add up to quite a bit of money for those clubs that are open several days a week
The arrangement is all above board and quite legal.

Just start a simple spread sheet to record the miles covered and once a year make the claim
John

[Powderfinger]

Great idea, John. I will put it before our committee. FAS weights in the post tomorrow. Best regards.

[discount-dvd]

Fantastic idea I will propose it at our next committee meeting

[pennineway.fswo]

CASC approval is worth having for any club

It is relatively easy to obtain as long as your club has a written constitution and is properly managed.
One condition is that if the club folds then assets are transferred to an appropriate association/governing body for the sport rather than going to the club members. But for any stable club this is not a problem.

The approval has several tax advantages and the expenses annual claim that takes the treasurer/secretary a short time to complete can be worth quite a bit of money to the club each year and can help reduce membership fees or be used for purchasing equipment etc.

The bad publicity given to shooting this year from recent tragic events in the news has not helped our sport and may unfortunately influence grant bodies when handing out grant aid to clubs. So any tax rebates from the IR are welcome.

[Rutty]

The bad publicity given to shooting this year from recent tragic events in the news has not helped our sport and may unfortunately influence grant bodies when handing out grant aid to clubs. So any tax rebates from the IR are welcome.

I would add to the above that an increasing number of grant applications ask whether the club is a CASC. Whilst not having CASC status will normally not disqualify the club from submitting an application, you will have to explain why you have not applied to become one. In these cases CASC is an additional box "ticked".

Rutty

[donna.gtsc]

Who issues club's with CASC status, IR? Is it a case of completing an application form, submitting a constitution and await approval from the issuer?

Our club has one but just curious as to how it's gained

[Rutty]

Who issues club's with CASC status, IR? Is it a case of completing an application form, submitting a constitution and await approval from the issuer?

HMRC (IR no longer exist), you may download the forms here.

Rutty

[freshman210]

HMRC as of april 2011 allows you to claim £0.45 for the first 10,000 business miles and £0.25 there after tax free.

So you can pay this out or it can be "claimed" back without tax implications.

Iain

[Andy001]

I just wish i could find a wood or land to open a hft club in the northeast

[foxabilo]

Just remember to take the "scenic" route, as I just found out, you don't have to use the "shortest" route, so make it a long back road country lane version... savvy?

[biggles]

Spotted this thread and 'interested' but found the elderly link to further info and the application form now long dead - in part caused by the move of pretty much all HMRC and other government web info to the GOV.UK site.

Both the CASC and new web links can be found here:

CASC

Gov.uk web guidance notes and application form (link in section 2) is HERE

Biggles

[snaps1230]

Hi,

New member-so here goes with a first post. Fingers crossed!

My club has looked at CASC several times and thought the big snag was that it was (don't know if it still is) a one way ticket. Once joined there was no getting out, and it's always possible (likely,perhaps?) for a government to change the rules to be less advantageous. On cost, our main benefit would have been rate relief, but as we presently get a 100% relief there didn't seem to be any point in CASC for us.

[snaps1230]

Hi. CASC is a one way ticket - if you change your mind you can't back out. Fine while the concessions remain but potentially a problem if/when a government changes the rules.

[keith66]

When the CASC thing first came out our yacht club looked into it & it was proposed to go down that route.
It was defeated at an agm on the following argument.
Becoming a Casc suits Clubs that dont own their own land or property. If the club leases land from a local Council its worth doing.
If the club owns its own land freehold you are effectively giving your land away to the IR for ever.
There is nothing to stop a club from voting to not be a Casc anymore but nobody has ever done it & if a club did do it you would probably have to pay back what you might have been seen to gain, possibly a lot of money.
In our case the club owns 80 acres of land & has substantial assets built up over nearly a century, it was felt becoming a casc was a step too far.
One of the primary reasons clubs become Casc's is for funding, but as long as you have a proper dissolution clase in the constitution funding is available anyway.
The dissolution clause is far more important as it stops asset stripping, this actually happened to a club near here, they leased their land & clubhouse & after 40 years were given notice to quit. Because some far sighted members had realised this might happen in the future they had started a reserve fund to acquire new premises & this had grown to quite a big pot. Unfortunately the rules incorporated a mechanism where the longer you had been a member the bigger percentage of the pot went your way.
The officers & committee were offered another base but a group of older long time members pulled an egm to fold the club instead. So everyone got a pay out but a longstanding club died.
We put a dissolution clause to stop such a future scenario in a few years back & it sailed through, since then funding has been applied for from several places for different projects & gained.