Tax deductions for a personal trainer

As a self-employed personal trainer, HMRC lets you deduct your business expenses from your overall income when you do your tax return. This means that you only pay tax on your profits. 

If you’re not self-employed, you may also be able to claim back some of your expenses. But these must be things you’ve had to buy exclusively for work that your employer has not reimbursed. 

To read more about this, take a look at our article on the P87 form. It’s what you need to claim back employment expenses. 

What can I claim back as a personal trainer?

Here’s a list of expenses that personal trainers commonly claim back on their tax returns:

• Fitness studio rent
• Protein shakes (that you sell to your clients)
• Merchandise 
• Mileage (not including your commute)
• Marketing costs
• Training equipment
• Accounting costs (including TaxScouts)

You can actually expense anything, as long as it is wholly, exclusively and necessarily a spend made for your business. 

Read more about expenses here.