Community Amateur Sports Club status
Community Amateur Sport Club (CASC) status is a legal/tax status which can offer benefits such as tax reliefs and the ability to reclaim tax under Gift Aid.
About Community Amateur Sports Clubs
The designation Community Amateur Sports Club, or CASC, was introduced as a way of bringing some of the benefits of being registered as a charity to sports clubs not eligible for charitable status. So Amateur sports clubs are now able to take advantage of valuable tax reliefs by registering as a CASC with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
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To qualify as a CASC, a club must, as its main purpose, provide facilities for and promote participation in one or more eligible sport.
Registering as a charity or a CASC is a decision that should not be taken lightly. Sports clubs come in all shapes and sizes and they must decide for themselves whether registration, which provides corporation tax exemption, business rate relief and the ability to maximise donations through Gift Aid, is worthwhile. For some clubs, registering may not be the only, or the best option. However, many sports clubs do benefit from the advantages that registration can bring.
Registering as a CASC
To register as a CASC your club must meet the following qualifying conditions and meet them on an ongoing basis - otherwise the club may lose its CASC status and be subject to a deregistration charge:
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Be open to the whole community
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Be organised on an amateur basis
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Have as its main purpose the provision of facilities for, and the promotion of participation in, one or more eligible sports.
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Not exceed the income limit
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Meet the management condition
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Meet the location condition and with at least 50% of its members taking part in the sports activities.
Once registered as a CASC, a club can’t apply to be recognised as a charity. To convert a registered CASC to a charity involves transferring over the assets and activities to a new charity and closing down (winding up) the CASC. A club does not require to be incorporated to benefit from CASC status, although it may help. If you are thinking of applying for CASC status, it is worth considering how you would meet the criteria to be a CASC.
Our Support
To date, we’ve supported the incorporation of over 58 sports organisations across Scotland. This includes semi-professional football clubs such as Annan Athletic (as a Community Benefit Society), New Elgin Juniors (as a Company Limited by Guarantee) and Dunbar United (as a Community Interest Company) and multiple amateur grassroots clubs of all sports and sizes (as Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations).
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Our support includes assistance selecting the right legal structure for your club, drafting a suitable constitution for that legal structure, application to the regulator and transferring assets to the new entity. We have club-specific rules/constitutions pre-approved by regulators which can make the process more manageable, not to mention huge experience in the field. We can often clubs with the entire process for as little as £1000 (although a final sum will depend on any complexities/specific requests your club might have – e.g. if you're creating subsidiaries).
