Commercial & Non-commercial activities
With regards to Commercial Activities the ATO advises the following: “The commercial activities of an endorsed charity, gift deductible entity or government school are taxable but the non-commercial activities of these organisations may be GST free dependent upon whether certain threshold tests are met.”
This means that, when registered for GST, the Formation does not remit GST on the payment it receives for its non-commercial sales, and it can claim GST credits for the GST included in the price of purchases it uses to make these sales. The term 'non-commercial activities' refers to sales made when the payment received for the sale is less than a specified amount.
The sale of a non-accommodation supply is GST free if the amount charged is either of the following:
If the items you sell do not meet the above criteria you will need to charge GST eg uniform sales
Den Hire & Campsite fees to external customers.
With regards to den Hire and campsite fees charged to non-scouting customers this is only GST free if the amount charged is less than 75% of the market rate, this would be something that we would need to be able to prove to the ATO if we were audited.
We are currently recommending that Formations conduct some market research in their area on similar halls or campsites and keep some documentation, to reflect that the amount charged is less than 75% of the market rate. If it is not possible to obtain such documentation we are recommending to Formations to take the conservative approach and charge GST for external den hire.
Scouting activities relying heavily on third party providers.
If you organise a Formation activity that relies largely on external paid providers, such as Laserforce, iFly, Cinemas, etc) and you are ask parents to reimburse the full commercial rate, you can only claim these GST credits on the expenses if you also charge GST on the income.
In these cases the best approach would be to not claim the GST or only charge members less than 50% of the GST inclusive commercial rate.
For example if you take a group of Scouts to Laserforce which costs $11 per child (including GST) and seek a full reimbursement from the child, you will only be able to claim the GST included in the price if you also charge GST to the youth member. However if the group subsidises the event and only charges each youth member $4 you will be able to claim the GST credit on the fees paid to Laserforce without charging GST to the youth member.
Membership fees & Scouting activities organized by volunteers.
Most of the supplies (that is the provision of Scouting to our youth members) made by the Association will be GST free. This is because the supplies made to Scouts such as the provision of Scouting activities, camps, etc; is less than 50% of the GST inclusive market value of the supply due to the Scouts Qld being a largely volunteer organisation and therefore the value of what we provide outweigh the costs charged.
Fundraising Events
With regards to fundraising events the ATO advises the following: “A registered charity, gift deductible entity may elect to treat certain fundraising events as input taxed. If an organisation chooses to treat a fundraising event as an input taxed fundraising event, it will have to treat all sales it makes in connection with the event as input taxed. The choice must be made before any sales take place. The organisation will not be entitled to claim GST credits for any purchases for the event and it will not be required to remit GST on the sales it makes. The organisation will not be entitled to claim GST credits regardless of whether the supply would have been GST free had it not made the election. An endorsed charity, gift deductible entity or government school can conduct a particular fundraising event up to 15 times in a financial year and choose to treat each event as input taxed.
If an organisation holds more than 15 of the same type of events in a financial year, none of the events can be treated as input taxed fundraising events. For example, if an organisation holds 16 fundraising dinners in a financial year, none of the dinners can be treated as input taxed and the organisation must account for GST for each of the earlier 15 dinners by revising the related activity statement”
With respect to Scout formations we believe that 15 similar events relate to each formation (sub-entity) rather than the organisation as a whole.
Using a sausage sizzle as an example, this means is that if you choose to treat it as input taxed, you don’t have to pay GST to the ATO on the sale of the sausages but you cannot claim GST input credits on the expenses.
With regards to a BBQ, it would probably be best to treat it as input taxed because the majority of the expenses relating to the activity (sausages, bread, and onions) are GST free.
Branch Payments
Costs that have been charged by either the Branch or other Scouts QLD Formations should be coded to the BAS Excluded, in the Tax coding section. These amounts do not include GST, this is because all Formations in QLD come under the one ABN and are the same entity in the eyes of the ATO.
Advantages and disadvantages of claiming GST
The advantage of claiming GST is generally, that you will be able to recover GST paid on specific supplies, however this must be weighed against the GST that must be remitted on particular types of income.
The disadvantage is complexity and workload. If your Formation is going to claim GST you need to comply with Scouts QLD polices and this might a level of work and complexity that you are not used to.