Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Tue, Sep 06, 2005 at 10:40:23PM +0100, Rich Walker wrote: >> In the UK, VAT registration is *required* if you are "in business"[1] >> and your 12-month *turnover* exceeds £60000. Probably this is not an >> issue for this organisation at present. > > VAT registration isn't the one you need to worry about. Debian-UK > isn't going to be shifting that much money in a hurry. > > Corporation Tax is the one to worry about. The limit for that is only > £10,000 per financial year. I just ran a few quick projections based > on the reports in the [EMAIL PROTECTED] archives, and it's reasonably > likely that it'll be over that limit next year, given the current rate > of growth in sales. It might be over this year, that's hard to
Well spotted, that man. > predict. Corporation Tax also applies to members associations, clubs > and societies at the same rate as for registered companies. Basically > any group of two or more people that handles money and isn't a charity > is going to have to pay Corporation Tax; HMRC's definition of > "company" is "anything that owes us money and isn't an individual > citizen". > > Corporation Tax requires annual tax returns and notification that the > company exists, and HMRC is going to come along and audit anything as > weird as Debian-UK fairly quickly, so the accounts had better be in > order, backdated six years. Failure to file the tax returns in a > timely manner results in a fine of £100/£200 plus 10%/20% of the > unpaid tax, depending on how untimely you are. Failure to have your > accounts in order when they audit results in HMRC conducting an > autopsy of the company. I assume that someone is even now writing a quick script to import the historical accounts into sql-ledger (which does a pretty good job of it) so the previous years reports can be produced on demand? > It may also require a tax return to be filed for years when the > association is below the limit. I'm not sure about that. If it does, > the same penalties apply. Ask a chartered accountant. > > And those penalties can probably be applied against any members, since > it's not incorporated with limits on liability. Incorporate a company limited by guarantee, rather than a company limited by shares. (Avoids the whole shareholder issue; and they're expected to be a bit weird). > > Bugger. No, that's what the taxman might do. -- rich walker | Shadow Robot Company | [EMAIL PROTECTED] technical director 251 Liverpool Road | need a Hand? London N1 1LX | +UK 20 7700 2487 www.shadow.org.uk/products/newhand.shtml -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]