| One of the major issues facing rugby clubs which are registered with HM Revenue & Customs as Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASC’s) or considering registration as such is rewarding players. Unfortunately the tax law does not recognize the potential value to the success of the club of paying players. The CASC rules only allow the re-imbursement of reasonable travel expenses incurred by players travelling to away matches. This is much narrower than what the RFU’s rules allow; thus the payment of expenses such as for home travel and for training, accommodation or subsistence is not allowed by the CASC rules. If your club wants to progress up rugby’s Levels and wishes to pay players more than just their expenses of travelling to away matches then the CASC scheme is probably not for you.
If your club is already registered as a CASC and intends to pay its players more than the expenses of away travel then it should consider setting up a separate club or company to run the first 15 and preserve CASC status for the existing “amateur” club. Whilst this creates extra administration this should avoid the potentially costly consequences which could arise from the loss of CASC status. The regulatory position regarding player registration and League position of the club should be discussed with the RFU but should not cause problems. General guidance on how to establish a separate club/company can be found in the paper “Community Amateur Sports Club status and payments to players in Community Rugby” on the Community Rugby –Legal and Admin section of the RFU’s website.
http://www.rfu.com/ManagingRugby/ClubDevelopment/LegalAndAdmin/CommunityAmateurSportsClubs.aspx
Please also remember that playing players can result in the club having to account for PAYE and NIC on the payments and force it to pay the National Minimum Wage to its players if it is not already doing so- please take care! Guidance on “Pay As you Earn, National Insurance and National Minimum for Community Rugby clubs-Guidance Notes” can be found on the Community Rugby-Finance and Funding section of the RFU’s website. http://www.rfu.com/ManagingRugby/ClubDevelopment/FinanceAndFunding/FinancialManagement.aspx
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