Greetings unto the populace of Ynys Fawr,
Recently at the Baronial Meeting and over the last few days some questions have been asked by a number of people within the Kingdom regarding the increased non-member surcharge to cover Insurance and GST.
Glynnis Hollindale our SCA Ltd Treasurer has supplied the following answers to some of your questions.
Question 1 – When does the Insurance Surcharge start?
Answer 1 – The Insurance Surcharge will be applicable at events, meetings and fighter practices from the 1st of September 2012. Reeves will be expected to remit surcharges with their Q3 report
NB: Further negotiation is occurring with the Insurance Company and we are planning to make a more detailed announcement with hopefully less onerous requirements closer to the applicable date.
Question 2 – Does the $5 Insurance Surcharge replace the $2 event membership we currently charge or is it in addition to the $2?
Answer 2 – Yes, it is a replacement of the $2.
Previously, the $2 event membership helped us pay the $10K. Now the $5 Insurance Surcharge is in addition to the $10K and will be passed on directly to AoN. There are also different requirements for the application of the Insurance Surcharge.
Question 3 – You are saying that we do not have to pay this [non-member insurance] until September. My interpretation was that the insurance company was prepared to accept the payments on the basis of attendance numbers, ie in arrears which to my interpretation means we should be charging it from 1st July to be handed on. Please can you clarify this situation for us?
Answer 3 – Yes, the insurance company is happy to receive in arrears. Yes we do not have the charge it until 1st September. SCA Ltd will not be paying anything until 1st December 2012.
Question 4 – As we are now paying GST as we are over the limit for a Non-Profit organisation when we book halls can we no longer claim to be a non-profit group?
Answer 4 – No, it does not impact on our Non-profit status.
Non-profit status is based on the articles in our Constitution that forbid distribution of funds to members other than as reimbursements in our capacity as members and that if SCA Ltd closes, the money will go to a similar organisation and not distributed among the members. We can employ people to work for us such as the accountant and auditor, legal counsel giving us advice etc but not distribute dividends to the membership.
SCA Ltd is paying GST as we have breached the threshold for money passing through the bank accounts. It does not matter if SCA Ltd makes a profit from its activities or not. The fact that SCA Ltd is a non-profit company means that the threshold was higher than the one for a normal business.
Thank you to those people who asked the questions.
In Service,
David de Derlington
Seneschal, Ynys Fawr