Community benefit societies which are not registered charities currently pay corporation tax on their profits, investment income and any capital gains. At present the government does not consider a specific exemption from corporation tax to be appropriate as there are alternative routes by which community benefit societies could access an exemption- most importantly registering as a charity if the relevant conditions are met.<\/p>
<\/p>
The business rates system also includes a number of reliefs and exemptions for registered charities. If a community benefit society is a registered charity then it would be potentially eligible for this support. And all community benefit societies will benefit from the reduction in business rates announced at Budget 2016, which is worth almost £9bn.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/3935", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mel Stride"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Central Devon"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Mel Stride"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2017-06-28", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2017-06-28T13:48:41.467Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "14"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Treasury"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "CaTreasury"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2017-06-21", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Community Interest Companies"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the benefits of exempting registered community benefit societies from (a) corporation tax and (b) business and non-domestic rates.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4682", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Luke Pollard"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Luke Pollard"} ], "uin" : "179"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/708907", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "HM Treasury"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/708907/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
Advice from HM Treasury officials to ministers was released on 30 September 2016 in response to a Freedom of Information request. The advice provides background to the decision to exclude energy generation as a qualifying activity in the venture capital schemes and Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR). The advice, dated 15 October 2015, stated that around 200 community energy schemes had registered in the year to September 2015. Of the 200, 72 were community benefit societies, and the remainder were community interest companies. Co-operative societies were not included in this analysis because they do not qualify for SITR investment.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/3918", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Jane Ellison"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Battersea"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Jane Ellison"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2017-03-13", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2017-03-13T17:18:01.607Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "14"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Treasury"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "CaTreasury"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2017-03-07", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Community Interest Companies"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many of the community interest companies referred to in the advice given by Treasury officials to Ministers in preparation for the Autumn Statement of 2015 as indicated by the response to the Freedom of Information request to a member of Community Energy England dated 30 September 2016 (reference R52/16) are (a) community benefit societies and (b) co-operative societies.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/178", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for John McDonnell"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Hayes and Harlington"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "John McDonnell"} ], "uin" : "66834"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 2, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }