While you help your clients to improve physical health, we are here to help you with your financial health, through increasing potential refunds from the ATO. Thus, we have compiled a quick guide to let you know what deductions you can claim in your tax return.

Work-related clothing expenses

You can claim a tax deduction if you are wearing a uniform that has your company logo on it. Clothing without a logo (such as general fitness attire) and your sports shoes are not deductible. If you are doing outdoor classes, you would be able to claim the costs of sun protection gear, such as sunglasses, sun hats, and sunscreen.

Work-Related Tools/Equipment

You can claim equipment/tools such as dumbbells, treadmills, resistance bands, stop watches, or other training equipment. If any individual equipment costs more than $300, you would have to calculate its decline in value (depreciation) over the expected life of the asset.

If you are a Sole Trader, you can claim the full amount of equipment instead of depreciating it if they are below $30,000 and you bought them prior to 12 March 2020. The threshold increases to $150,000 for assets purchased between 12 March 2020 and 30 June 2021. Any higher costing equipment will have to be depreciated.

Mobile Phone

If you use your phone or home internet to contact clients or use it as part of your training program (i.e. training videos), you can claim a percentage proportion of your phone bill that you have used for your work.

Stationery Expenses

If you have purchased any stationery i.e. paper, pens, clipboards for your work, these are also tax-deductible.

Motor vehicle expenses

You can also claim for motor vehicle expenses. if you need to travel from different client sites or gym locations. Any travel directly from your home to these locations are not deductible unless your home is a primary place where you train clients.

There are two options to calculate this expense:

Cent per KM method: You can claim up to 5,000 business km for 68 cents/per km in your 2019-2020 tax return.

Logbook method: You can claim the percentage of most car expenses. However, you will need an official vehicle logbook stating for a 12-week period of the beginning and ending odometer reading. This will be used as a representation of your travel throughout the whole year and determine the percentage of business use of motor vehicle expenses that you can claim.

Insurance

Any insurance expenses that you have incurred for your business such as public liability or income protection are tax-deductible. Personal insurance such as TPD and Life insurance are not deductible.

Eligible Donations

Any donations made to eligible charities of more than $2 are deductible, so keep the receipts if you do donate to any of those organizations!

Bank fees

Any fees that you have incurred to maintain your business account or for payment gateways are tax-deductible.

Marketing and Advertisement Fee

If you have incurred costs in advertising your services or pay for marketing costs, these are also tax-deductible.

License and Registration Fees

If you are required to have specific checks done, i.e. Working with Children’s Check, Police Clearance Certificate, etc., or have to be a member of an organization to train clients, these are all deductible expenses. Do note that personal gym memberships are not deductible.

Accounting fees

Any accounting fees (including using a Tax Agent) are deductible. So not only we do provide you these tips, but we will also help you to do your taxes and claim this expense as deductible as well.