If you work in the fitness industry as a personal trainer, coach or are employed in a gym or sporting organisation, you may be able to claim the following deductible expenses on your tax return.
1)Work Clothing
If the uniform of the gym or business you work for displays a logo, then you can claim the cost of purchasing, laudring and repairing it. Also, you can claim the costs of protective items such as sun protection items like hats, sunglasses and sunscreen.
Note you can’t claim general gym clothing such as track pants, shorts, tights, tank tops, sports bras, sports shoes, socks or t-shirts. The ATO considers these conventional clothing are wearable for personal use outside of work.
2)Fitness equipment & work tools
You can claim the costs of purchasing or hiring equipment up to $300, such as sporting equipment and weights to be use by clients, electronic organisers, laptops, mobile phones, stationary items, diaries, briefcases.
If the equipment costs more than $300 you will need to claim the depreciation on the item over a number of years. Precent can help you with claiming depreciation, please contact us.
3)Work-related car expenses
If you use your car for work, such as trips between clients or classes, you can claim car expenses. You can calculate your work-related car expenses using two methods: a) cents per kilometre and b) Logbook. Check out our blog ´How to claim tax deductions for work-related car expenses’. Also, Precent can help you calculating your work-related car expenses, please contact our professional team.
On the other hand, you can’t claim work-related car expenses for trips to and from your usual place of work at the beginning and at the end of your shift. The exception to this rule is if you are required to transport heavy or bulky gym equipment and you are unable to store it at your place at work.
4)Meals & Travel
If you are required to travel for work, you can claim the cost of public transport, flights, taxis, parking, tolls and hire cars. If you need to stay overnight, the accommodation and associated costs, such as food and incidentals are also tax deductions for fitness industry workers.
5)Training expenses
In order to grow and develop your career, it is important to stay up to date with trends and developments in your industry.
You can deduct the training directly related to your current position such as certification fees, work-related short courses, attendance at fitness expos, self-education courses run by universities, compulsory CPD training courses. You can also claim the travel and meal expenses to attend these courses.
6)Home office expenses
You can claim home office expenses if you have a designated room or area at home where you run classes or personal training, or if you regularly need to make phones calls, answer emails or do general admin work that is related to your job.
7)Other tax deductions
- Professional publications magazines/ New websites subscriptions
- Union and association fees
- Work-related phone expenses
- Work percentage of laptop usage
- Tax agent fees
- Charity donations
- Income protection insurance
- Deductions relating to investment costs
- Investment property expenses
More information
We recommend you to keep all your records and receipts of your expenses, take pictures of your receipts, as is a safe way to keep your information. Precent can help you to determine your work-related expenses in the fitness industry. Please contact us at [email protected], or call us to (+ 61) 2 8317 1281.