Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC)

A CASC is a halfway house for grassroots sports clubs: it gives access to some charity-style tax reliefs without the full weight of charity regulation. It is registered with HMRC, not the Charity Commission, and is designed specifically for amateur, community sport.

A registered CASC can claim Gift Aid and receive at least 80% business rates relief, without being a charity — but a club cannot be both a CASC and a charity. (Source: GOV.UK, Community amateur sports clubs (CASCs), accessed 9 July 2026.) In return, the club must be open to the whole community, organised on an amateur basis, have sport as its main purpose, and not distribute profits.

Because moving between CASC and charity status later is difficult, weigh the choice carefully against your funding and governance plans — charity status also means adopting a structure such as a charitable company or a CIO, each with its own filing duties. See how the reliefs work in the Gift Aid entry and the Gift Aid Handbook.