Your Unit board has been wrestling with the impact the HST will have on our members.
Our original thought, was that because of the volume of money we take in for our sectionals the HST would apply to us. This means that on a $10 entry fee, we would need to collect $1.30 on behalf of the government.
It is for this reason that at our final meeting last month, we passed a motion to raise the entry fee.
One question that keeps coming up is, "Cant we get this money back?".
The answer is, "We can get back what we pay others, but we must send to the government what we collect ourselves." Since most of our costs are to the ACBL in the US, to the directors for salaries etc. we don't pay much in the way of HST, and even if we did, it would not cover what we collect. The HST is not revenue neutral. :)!
One of our members has suggested that Unit 430 register itself as a Not For Profit Society.
Your board will actively pursue this option at our next board meeting.
Update July 8th.
ReplyDeleteFrom what we can tell, if you are an organization that collects over $50k of revenue per year, you must collect HST. This applies whether you are a Non-Profit, or otherwise. There are still a couple of things to check, but things do not look good for avoiding it.
Good news is that the finances of the Unit are in good shape and the board voted to keep the fees for the September sectional at the $10.00 level, and eat the cost of the HST, at least for this tournament.
Greg Morse.