Personal Trainers and VAT

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PTHub Author info:-  Founder and Personal Trainer Marketer Chris Laing read my Personal Trainer Marketing Blog at PTHub.com & follow me on Twitter Join my Personal Trainer Forum Read more from this author

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So you’re doing really well and making loads of money! Great! but do you need to pay VAT and are there any benefits in you actually being VAT registered?

The simple answer is that if your business turnover is over £67,000 (correct as at time of publishing) a year then you will need to be VAT registered and pay VAT.

You will have to be an extremely busy Personal Trainer to reach this level of income, but it is achieveable. Lets have a quick look at an example. Lets take the £67,000 VAT threshold divide that by 52 weeks in a year = £1289 worth of business weekly, Say you charge £35 per session, you’d need to be doing 37 sessions per week to need to consider becoming VAT registered. So for most personal trainers, you wont ever need to consider VAT.

However if your business turnover is over £67,000 a year, then once you’re registered you will be able to claim the VAT you have been paying, back from government, on your business purchases. Now, however, you will have to charge your clients VAT making your service more expensive!

Some people register for VAT as they may sell additional products such as equipment and sports nutrition as well as clothing. You will have to submit your VAT return. You pay the difference between what you are claiming back from your purchases and the amount you have charged your customers.

Full advice can be found on the HMRC Website

and more details about whether you should register as a Limited Company or as a Sole Trader is available here.