The ATT is highly critical of the so-called simplification of the rules and made its comments in response to HMRC’s recent technical consultation on amending the rules which a sports club needs to meet in order to register as a CASC.

Although HMRC stated that its intention was ‘to keep the rules as clear and as straightforward as possible’, the ATT says clubs could potentially be required to monitor up to 16 different aspects of their operation to make sure they comply with proposed regulations.

Natalie Miller, ATT president, said: ‘Amateur sports clubs are not designed to operate as de facto auditing centres to ensure that all aspects of their activities, no matter how obscure, fall rigidly within the inexplicably complex CASC eligibility criteria.’

Miller said the new rules mean that clubs will have to keep tabs on a range of activities such as recording travel time to and from away matches, assessing what costs over and above any membership fee a member might need to incur in order to participate in the sport, and possibly even allocating the proceeds from the club’s annual summer fete between receipts from members and non-members.

They will also need to differentiate between ‘social’ and ‘active’ members which could involve recording how many times a member assists at Saturday morning training sessions of the junior team.

In the discussion document for the consultation on CASC, which ran from 9 October to 5 November, HMRC said the new approach would mean that some clubs will need to change how they are structured if they wish to continue to be CASCs.

However, a spokesperson at HMRC said that ‘by introducing clearer rules for clubs to follow, existing CASCs will have greater certainty in how to remain eligible and the government hopes that the proposed changes will encourage more clubs to qualify and apply for CASC status’.

Miller refutes this view, saying: ‘Most clubs rely on volunteers for their administration; they simply do not have the resources to comply with all the regulations that are being proposed. 

‘The government has recognised that sports clubs have a key role to play in building on the Olympic and Paralympic legacy but they will be hampered by the near self-defeating complexity of the tax relief criteria; it will discourage clubs from registering’.

HMRC conceded that ‘volunteers and other lay people unfamiliar with the law may not find the draft regulations easy to apply in practice’, and said it would be issuing ‘clear, general guidance’ and would be working closely with any sports’ national governing bodies which aimed to publish their own guidance for their members, to take into account the special circumstances of their sport.

While Miller welcomed HMRC’s commitment to an education campaign when the new regulations are introduced, she said ATT had concerns that HMRC could then switch to an approach based on compliance checking.

‘In the event of unintended non-compliance, we would like to see HMRC offering guidance rather than threatening withdrawal of CASC status.

‘Commitment to a “light touch” regime would give clubs confidence that they would not lose their CASC registration for a minor breach of these complex rules. The government has given a clear signal that it sees CASCs as a good thing. These rules need to be applied in line with that recognition,’ Miller said. 

HMRC’s Community Amateur Sports Clubs – technical consultation, is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/364277/Community_Amateur_Sports_Clubs_-_Technical_Consultation.pdf

ATT’s response is here:  http://www.att.org.uk/Resources/ATT/Documents/2014/11/141107%20Community%20Amateur%20Sports%20Clubs%20-%20ATT%20response.pdf