[cma-l] Charitable Status

Paul Golder paul at pvg.co.uk
Tue Feb 8 12:01:28 GMT 2011 

I'd disagree that voluntary registration for VAT is not worth the hassle.
We're nowhere near the threshold and have been VAT registered since day one
(nearly 15 years now).  Virtually all of our customers have been VAT
registered so it's no skin off their nose if we charge VAT - they just claim
it back themselves.  We have benefitted from thousands of pounds of savings
by legitimitely reclaiming inputs on equipment, licence fees, etc, and we've
sailed through our regular VAT visits so there's no question that we're
doing anything fundamentally wrong.

I'm an accountant and preparing our VAT return every 3 months and filing it
on line takes about 10 minutes.  If you're not an accountant, it won't take
a lot longer.  Most groups have someone connected to them who can give
advice on what to claim.

Paul
Phoenix FM
www.phoenixfm.com




On 8 February 2011 10:25, jaqui devereux <jaqui.devereux at commedia.org.uk>wrote:

> Dear all
>
> Just as a point of clarification re VAT registration:
>
> It makes no difference at all whether you are a CLG, CIC, charity or
> charitable company.  If the sources of your income fall within the scope of
> VAT, and the total of those sources in scope exceed the VAT threshold,
> currently £70,000, then you MUST register for VAT.  Whether income is within
> the scope depends on its nature.  So an out and out grant will not be, a
> service level agreement may or may not be (even if for education/training)
> depending on the wording and whether the funding body treats it as within
> the scope, ads and sponsorship etc almost certainly will be.  Any of the
> above organisation types can register voluntarily for VAT but it really is
> not worth the extra accounting hassle unless you are quite close to the
> threshold (look on the HMRC website for the rules on VAT partial exemption
> calculations requirements).  Partial exemption is a minefield!
>
> Hope that helps
>
> Jaqui
>
> On 5 February 2011 18:57, Ian Hickling <transplanfm at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> As I have said many times - the obvious solution is to run three
>> businesses concurrently:
>>
>> 1 - The Community Radio station as a CIC which does not return a profit.
>> 2 - A Charitable arm which can accept charitable donations which does not
>> retrun a profit and feeds the station.
>> 3 - A commercial limited company which can return a profit from a wide
>> range of activities, is VAT-registered and feeds the station.
>>
>> It's sensible business practice - not rocket science.
>>
>> To lose that much VAT by default is just plain stupid - sorry!
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> From: office at ccr-fm.co.uk
>> To: info at a-bc.co.uk; cma-l at commedia.org.uk
>> Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2011 14:34:48 +0000
>> Subject: Re: [cma-l] charity status
>>
>>  Glyn n’ all
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks Glyn …………. As I said …. It looks like everyone is fumbling around
>> in the dark. Either we can as a fraturnity / brotherhood or we can’t ……..
>> which is it …. ??  I dunno’?
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards
>>
>>
>>
>> Nick
>>
>>
>>  ------------------------------
>>
>> *From:* glyn.m.roylance at googlemail.com [mailto:
>> glyn.m.roylance at googlemail.com] *On Behalf Of *Associated Broadcast
>> Consultants
>> *Sent:* 04 February 2011 22:59
>> *To:* Office - ccr-fm
>> *Cc:* CMA-L
>> *Subject:* Re: [cma-l] charity status
>>
>>
>>
>> Yes we had the same experience.  Essentially we discovered that a
>> community radio station could not be a charity unless it fulfilled one of a
>> number of narrow categories .  ie: if we decided to be a religious radio
>> station then bingo, but we did not want to go that way.
>>
>>
>>
>> Instead we went down the CIC route.  It was "sold" to us as being
>> equivalent to being a charity, but from a recent approach from Inland
>> Revenue I think it might have some drawbacks compared to being a charity
>> (they seem to treat us like any other ommercial Ltd company) - but I'm not
>> an expert.
>>
>>
>>
>> Glyn Roylance
>>
>> GLOSS FM.org
>>
>>
>>
>> On 4 February 2011 18:16, Office - ccr-fm <office at ccr-fm.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> Dear All
>>
>>
>>
>> Just a quick enquiry ………………. Does anyone know how many Community Radio
>> Stations in our fraturnity/brotherhood are actually charities ??     I know
>> that we looked into it 7 years ago but the process was a complete nightmare.
>> Also, in 2004 I clearly remember that the Charities commision simply had NO
>> category for radio ….. it was almost as if they didn’t understand it
>> >?>?                              I think the key to it and the crux of the
>> matter was that we were technically ‘’all over the place’’ in what we were
>> providing ……… in otherwords, providing a lot, but nothing specific
>> !                            almost          ‘’a jack of all trades but
>> master of none’’
>>
>>
>>
>> Have any of you guys had a similar experience ?                       I
>> seem to recall that there is a station on the south coast as a charity
>> ??              plus         Regen (near to us) in South Manchester who do
>> run Wythenshawe FM and ALL FM ……………… outside of that, I’m a bit clueless to
>> be honest ……. Any ideas ?
>>
>>
>>
>> What about Sheffield and of course the CMA ?
>>
>>
>>
>> Many thanks
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards
>>
>>
>>
>> Nick
>>
>>
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>>
>> --
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>
>
> --
> Jaqui Devereux
> Director, Community Media Association
>
>
>
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