{"id":5918,"date":"2020-07-03T17:54:52","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T16:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/taxfix.com\/en-uk\/?p=5918"},"modified":"2022-09-27T13:52:47","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T12:52:47","slug":"is-a-gym-membership-tax-deductible-for-a-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taxfix.com\/en-uk\/expenses\/is-a-gym-membership-tax-deductible-for-a-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Is a gym membership tax deductible for a business?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>So, is a gym membership tax deductible for a business? In short, it depends.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can technically expense anything as long as you can prove that it\u2019s a business expense. But most of the time, gym membership is deemed a personal expense by HMRC.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Take a look here for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/expenses-if-youre-self-employed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">details of what HMRC allows<\/a> as a deductible expense if you&#8217;re self-employed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">When could I deduct gym membership?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are some examples of occupations where the expense might be deemed reasonable:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Actor<\/li><li>Model<\/li><li>Personal Trainer<\/li><li>Ballet dancer<\/li><li>Fitness instructor<\/li><li>Athlete<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Tax in 10(ish) seconds - what are expenses?\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/H2yyiSfSdoE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Is a gym membership tax deductible if it\u2019s not related to my business?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>With all expenses, you should apply common sense when you claim.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Generally, HMRC sees gym membership as a subscription payment. Take a look at some more examples of subscriptions in the eyes of HMRC:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Trade or professional journals<\/li><li>Trade body or professional organisation membership if related to your business<\/li><li>Political party membership<\/li><li>Gym membership fees<\/li><li>Donations to charity&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>HMRC explicitly lists political party membership, gym membership and charity donations as non-allowable expenses. That said, if you\u2019re able to provide evidence that clearly justifies it as a business expense (i.e. if you\u2019re in one of the above occupations), it can be claimed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don\u2019t forget to keep all of your receipts and record of your work. You\u2019ll need as much evidence as possible to be able to claim. And HMRC can request to see your receipts any time up to seven years after you\u2019ve incurred the expense!&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What about gym membership for my mental health?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In general, you\u2019re not able to claim your gym membership costs for mental health reasons.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If it\u2019s been specifically instructed by a doctor &#8211; which is unlikely as hospitals run their own medically prescribed gym classes &#8211; you\u2019ll need to provide all records and as much evidence as you can to back up the claim. Even then, you should discuss it with your accountant or with HMRC directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What do our accountants say?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We asked Paul, one of our Taxfix accountants. He couldn\u2019t see gym membership being accepted as a reasonable expense.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/taxfix.com\/en-uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Accountant-Profile-Paul-Insta-Post.png\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/taxfix.com\/en-uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Accountant-Profile-Paul-Insta-Post-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/taxfix.com\/en-uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Accountant-Profile-Paul-Insta-Post-1024x1024.png 1024w, https:\/\/taxfix.com\/en-uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Accountant-Profile-Paul-Insta-Post-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/taxfix.com\/en-uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Accountant-Profile-Paul-Insta-Post-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/taxfix.com\/en-uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/Accountant-Profile-Paul-Insta-Post.png 1080w\" class=\"wp-block-image__media\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 1000px) 768px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s usually a taxable <a href=\"https:\/\/taxfix.com\/en-uk\/glossary\/benefits-in-kind\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">benefit in kind<\/a>,\u201d he explained, \u201cunless it was a business who built a gym for their staff members to use. It would be like claiming expenses to go to the pub because socialising is good for your mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So, is a gym membership tax deductible for a business? In short, it depends.&nbsp; You can technically expense anything as long as you can prove that it\u2019s a business expense. But most of the time, gym membership is deemed a personal expense by HMRC.&nbsp; Take a look here for details of what HMRC allows as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[464],"tags":[356,411],"class_list":["post-5918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expenses","tag-expenses","tag-self-employed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is a gym membership tax deductible for a business? &#8211; Taxfix<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is a corporate gym membership tax deductible? It all depends. 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