This is an important message for all tennis clubs. HMRC is looking more closely at the financial operations of sports clubs. Tennis is one of the sports which HMRC will potentially be scrutinising over the next 12 months and as such we would like to provide as much information as possible to clubs to help ensure they are operating appropriately and to minimise any possible problems for clubs.
Below are a few important points for clubs to be aware of and to consider. In addition, Sport Wales will be running two workshops in Wales on all of these areas on the 9th Dec (Swansea) and 10th Dec (Cardiff) and you or a colleague would be most welcome to a place if you feel it would be useful. The workshops run from 10am to 2pm and cover all the areas mentioned, together with details of how to comply with the requirements. There will also be other workshops being run at other times and other places (see below for contact information).
a) The clubs status – if they are not a limited company, the club committee should be aware that they could be personally liable for any tax bill if the club is unable to pay.
b) Bookkeeping – a club should ensure it has evidence of day to day bookkeeping that details who has paid what to the club and should ensure that it is producing acceptable end of year accounts, independently verified by an external qualified accountant, and subsequently approved by members at the AGM.
c) Non-member income – a club should be aware that member income is not taxable, whereas non-member income is. We recommend that any club that has significant non-member income should consider registering as a CASC club, thereby giving themselves a tax free allowance of £30,000 non-member income.
d) Payments to self-employed workers – a club needs to ensure that their workers would pass the self-employment guidelines, failure to do so could result in them being declared employees and the club liable for any unpaid tax/penalties/interest.
e) Payments to volunteers – a club should ensure that it is only paying approved expenses and that said expenses are ‘out-of-pocket’ expenses only. Any other form of payment may be deemed to be a payment for services and tax could then be an issue.
f) Payments to casual workers – a club should ensure that it completes the required paperwork for casual workers and ensures that said workers do not turn into employee because of the pattern or regularity of the work provided by the club. They should also tax said workers at source via a payroll if the workers are working elsewhere.
g) Payments to children – a club should ensure that it has a work permit for each child it pays. Failure to do so could result in a maximum fine of £1000 per child.
If you would like any further information about this including costs or if you are interested in the above workshops, or any other workshops please contact Gareth Parry at Sport Wales on 029 2033 8224 or e-mail Gareth.Parry@sportwales.org.uk.