About what membership dues, every adult knows, especially those who grew up during the Soviet era. This is a voluntary return of own funds to the needs of any organization in which the person is a member, carried out regularly.
Is it so? What are membership dues? Are their sizes regulated by law? Do all organizations have the right to collect funds from their members? As a rule, an ordinary person who does not have a special legal education is not ready to answer these questions.
What is it? Definition
Nominally membership dues are one of the sources of funds that make up the budget of a public organization. The main difference between them and other sources of finance in their intended purpose. This source of funding is spent exclusively on ensuring the conditions of the organization.
This means that membership fees can be used to pay rent of premises, state duties, the purchase of products for any gatherings and other similar things. However, membership fees are not a source of funds to pay for the time and labor of the organization’s leaders. That is, it is impossible to pay wages to the chairman of the management committee of any company from the money collected from members of the organization.
How are they regulated? Payment order
Payment of membership fees is made in the prescribed manner in accordance with the charter of a public organization. This means that each of the public organizations collecting funds from its members on a regular basis can establish its own order of their receipt.
As a rule, the procedure for collecting money, the timing of payment and the amount of contributions are prescribed in the charter of the company. In small organizations, they can be determined at a general meeting of members of the society by a majority of votes. For example, this determines the amount of contributions made by people and the timing of payments in horticultural partnerships.
What can they be? Types of Contributions
Membership fees are not targeted or introductory payments with which they are often confused. Membership payments include those that are paid regularly, in accordance with the organization’s charter or a schedule adopted at a meeting of members of the public. The size of these payments is regulated by the same - the charter, or the decision of the general meeting.
Accordingly, the difference in payments to the budget of a company or organization is as follows:
- membership - are charged constantly and in a fixed amount, with a clear schedule;
- introductory - one-time, with a fixed value;
- targeted - made for specific needs and acquisitions, if necessary, with an unregulated volume.
Thus, all contributions are different. Although in everyday speech they are not separated, calling "membership."
About targeted payments
Target payments are one-time material contributions of people who are members of a society or are members of an organization for specific needs. This means the following. For example, in the horticultural community at a general meeting, it was decided to dig a trash pit. For digging you need to hire an excavator and, of course, workers. It is likely that you need to get permission to dig it.
These activities are costly. Accordingly, a person is selected who will be engaged in organizing the digging of the pit. The person appointed by the general meeting responsible for the organization of the digging will find out the prices, find the performers, specify the terms of work, and if necessary receive permission from state bodies.
At the next meeting, the person responsible for organizing the digging reports. That is, a person tells members of society about what options exist for the implementation of digging and provides estimates for each of them.
Next, the meeting selects the appropriate option. That is, one of the options proposed by the responsible person is chosen, for which the majority of those present voted. After that, the value of the amount from the budget of the selected project is divided by the number of members of the company. The resulting number becomes the size of the target contribution.
The meeting also makes a decision on the timing of the delivery of funds. Target contributions are paid, as a rule, to the person who was previously appointed responsible for organizing the digging.
About introductory payments
Membership fees, the entries of which on the accounting statements reflect the entry of newcomers into the company, are called introductory fees. As in the case of regular payments, entrance fees are prescribed in the organization’s charter and are regulated by it.
As for companies that do not have a charter, the size of entrance fees is regulated by a decision of the general meeting. This decision is fixed in the minutes of the meeting.
Are membership fees for summer residents limited?
In July 2017, a federal legislative act was passed, obliging to dissolve all the forms of summer residents' communities that existed at that time. They were replaced by two types of organization of gardening groups:
- TSN - a partnership of real estate owners;
- Homeowners Association - a partnership of homeowners.
The law obliges community members to pay membership and earmarked contributions. However, the amount of membership fees in horticultural communities is still determined by the general meeting. The law only limits the time limit - at least once every two months.
But this does not mean at all that the size of payments is unlimited. How much money you have to pay is determined by the ratio of the following:
- current general needs - electricity, garbage collection, etc.
- maintenance, repair of roads, water supply or other facilities;
- community services needed by the outside.
This list can be supplemented, since each community has its own needs, for which the financial proceeds from the collection of contributions are spent. Financial estimates are provided by the accountant or the chairman of the community, and based on the data recorded in them, the meeting decides on the amount of regular contributions. The cooperative membership fees are regulated in the same way.
Can I not pay them?
Don’t pay dues, except in situations where the community or organization saves a person from paying them. In all other cases, non-payment of membership fees leads to sad consequences.
What exactly will happen to the debtor is an individual question. The measures taken in relation to people who are in arrears on regular payments are prescribed in the charter of the organization. In the absence of a charter, a decision on what to do with those who do not pay membership dues is made at a general meeting of the company.
What can be with non-payment?
This question is interesting to many, but it is especially important for summer residents. Not so rare are cases when people do not go to their privatized plots for one or two seasons, or even more. This happens for various reasons, and it is not always possible to get to the house, which houses the board of the partnership and pay the required amounts.
The collection of membership dues is made in a judicial proceeding. This means that through the court can be recovered:
- outstanding contributions;
- late fees;
- fines, if provided by the charter.
However, these measures against debtors are not always taken. Judicial collection is carried out exclusively after a decision is made. Accordingly, in order for the court to make such a decision, the board members of the horticultural community or the leaders of another organization must come to the meeting and act as the plaintiff.
In practice, this happens extremely rarely, especially when it comes to small non-profit organizations, such as interest clubs or summer cottages. As a rule, questions about non-payment of regular contributions are resolved without involving the judiciary, locally, that is, at meetings, if the procedure for such a case is not specified in the charter.
