Community Amateur Sports Club status for sailing clubs

bobdoughty

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Hi. I'm in a small sailing club which qualifies as a Community Amateur Sports Club and so gets a big discount on business rates. From next year HMRC regs say that at least 50% of members must "participate" (quite a broad definition) for a minimum of 12 days a year to continue to qualify. While I'm certain that we do, we're going to have to devise some sort of record keeping to satisfy any future enquiry by HMRC. Has anyone else come across this problem and does anyone have any good ideas for a simple recording system? All ideas gratefully received!

Bob
 

William_H

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Our club (www.efyc.com.au) is probably a much larger entity than yours. We went to a credit card style of membership card which is used to charge up bar purchases, meals and access to the premises by a boom gate. To encourage spending at the bar each memebr is charged 45 squid per quarter on their account. This is called House Suport Scheme and the 45 squid becomes a credit which has a life of 6 months. All of this means that it would be fairly easy to confirm activity or attendance of 12 days per year.
The club also has a large marina and to keep your place in the marina apart from paying fees you must show a min 12 club activities (outings or races) for sail boats and 3 outings for power boats each year. Each member who has a mooring is alsed to respond to request for a return showing activity during the year. This causes a fair bit of vexation excuses etc. but seems to work. At least it discourages the abandoned boat or little used boat problem.
These 2 systems may give you some idea re club use by members. good luck olewill
 

reeac

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Hi. I'm in a small sailing club which qualifies as a Community Amateur Sports Club and so gets a big discount on business rates. From next year HMRC regs say that at least 50% of members must "participate" (quite a broad definition) for a minimum of 12 days a year to continue to qualify. While I'm certain that we do, we're going to have to devise some sort of record keeping to satisfy any future enquiry by HMRC. Has anyone else come across this problem and does anyone have any good ideas for a simple recording system? All ideas gratefully received!

Bob
I understand that this new legislation is in response to the setting up of clubs which were only nominally sports clubs, being mainly drinking and dining venues which took advantage of the financial benefits. If the 50 percent criterion proves onerous then a solution is to "retire" the inactive members which would discriminate against the old and also younger members with busy careers ......difficult all round.
 

duncan99210

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The gig rowing club I belong to uses a web based sign up sheet for all rowing sessions. To get a row, you select your session and book a place on line. That booking then becomes the clubs record of usage by members. The system also acts as an "exchange" when people have to cancel sessions, alerting reserves to vacancies. I've no idea who built the system but it does work quite well. Perhaps something similar would help? If so, PM me and I can put you in touch with the club chairman.
 

lpdsn

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Has anyone else come across this problem and does anyone have any good ideas for a simple recording system? All ideas gratefully received!

Keep it as simple as possible. As members to sign a sheet at the end of the year to say how many days they've participated. Warn them there's a chance that HMRC might check up.

After all, it's pretty much what HMRC do when asking how many days you spent in the country when you're filling out a UK tax return.
 
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