How much tax should a personal trainer set aside? Tax and allowable expenses for 2025/26
Personal trainers usually pay a gym to use floor space and keep the rest of what clients pay. The takings are clean, the costs are scattered across categories, and it is easy to lose track of them.
What the tax looks like
Using the 2025/26 rates (England, Wales or Northern Ireland, no other income), a personal trainer with £32,000 of takings and £6,000 of allowable costs has £26,000 of profit and about £3,492 of income tax and Class 4 National Insurance for the year, roughly £291 a month. The figures are an illustration, not an average for the trade. Tax is on profit, not takings.
| Profit for the year | Income tax + Class 4 NI | Per month | Per £1 of profit |
|---|---|---|---|
| £16,000 | £891.80 | £74 | 6p |
| £26,000 | £3,491.80 | £291 | 13p |
| £39,000 | £6,871.80 | £573 | 18p |
Open the calculator already filled in with this example and change the two numbers to yours. It also shows the January and July payment dates.
Costs a personal trainer usually claims
Claim only what you actually spent on the business, and only the business share of anything you also use personally.
- Gym rent or floor fees paid weekly or monthly.
- Equipment: kettlebells, bands, mats, a tablet for programming.
- Insurance: public liability and professional indemnity cover.
- Training and CPD that keeps your existing qualifications current.
- Booking-app, payment and software fees.
- Mileage to clients' homes or outdoor sessions, at the flat rate or on actual costs.
The general list is on GOV.UK: self-employed expenses you can claim, and what you can't. If your costs for the year are under £1,000, the trading allowance may leave you less tax.
Mileage and working from home
Travel to a client's home or a park is business mileage. Your own journey to the gym where you are based is usually ordinary commuting, which is not claimable. GOV.UK's flat rate is 45p a mile before 6 April 2026 and 55p for the first 10,000 miles after, then 25p. If you also run online sessions from home, HMRC's hours-based flat rate is £10 a month for 25 hours or more, £18 for 51 hours or more and £26 for 101 hours or more (BIM75010, updated 4 August 2026). Training that moves you into a new line of work is treated differently from keeping your existing skills current.
VAT
£90,000 of taxable turnover over 12 months is the registration point. Check the figure if you also sell group classes or online programmes.
Records worth keeping
- Keep a sessions log: date, client or group, fee and how it was paid.
- Note the packages sold in advance; the money arrives before the sessions do.
- Keep gym rent receipts and the agreement setting the fee.
- Separate qualification costs from CPD in your records, since they can be treated differently.
Made for trainers: client sessions, gym rent and tax totals together: the Personal Trainer Accounts Spreadsheet is a one-off £4.99 download for Excel and Google Sheets. It is a spreadsheet only: nothing here files anything with HMRC, and the sheet doesn't replace an accountant if your case is complicated.
Dates matter too: the 2025/26 return and tax are due on 31 January 2027, and payments on account can make that January bigger than the year's bill.
This is a planning guide, not tax advice. Figures worked with the calculator's 2025/26 rules, and GOV.UK sources read on 21 October 2026: Expenses if you're self-employed, Business income manual BIM75010, Simplified expenses: vehicles, When to register for VAT.
Try the calculator with this example