Tax & GST
GST for personal trainers: when you have to register
The $75,000 threshold is the number everyone knows. The part that catches trainers out is that it isn't measured over the financial year — it's rolling, and you can cross it in March on the strength of contracts you haven't delivered yet.
You must register for GST once your GST turnover reaches $75,000, and you have 21 days from the point your turnover reaches it — not from the point you notice. Turnover is tested on a rolling 12 months — both what you've just done and what you reasonably expect next — not on the financial year.
Personal training is a normal taxable supply. It is not GST-free. Once you're registered, every session you invoice carries 10%, you can claim credits on business purchases that carried GST, and you lodge a BAS.
The $75,000 threshold, and the word that trips people up
Registration is compulsory when your GST turnover reaches $75,000. Below that it's your call. Everyone knows the number; far fewer know how it's measured, and it is not your turnover for the financial year. There are two tests, and you're over the threshold if either one hits $75,000:
- Looking back: the current month plus the previous 11 months. A twelve-month window that moves every time the calendar does.
- Looking forward: the current month plus the next 11 months, based on what you reasonably expect. Not hope for. Expect, with a reason.
The forward test is the one that catches trainers, because it's triggered by a signature rather than a bank deposit. You don't get to wait until 30 June to see how the year lands.
You turned over $61,000 last financial year. In March you pick up two 6am corporate group sessions worth roughly $1,800 a month, ongoing, and the rest of your book is unchanged. You now reasonably expect about $82,000 over the next twelve months — so the threshold is met in March, not at year end, and your 21 days runs from then.
What "GST turnover" actually counts
GST turnover is gross business income. Not profit, not what's left after the gym takes its cut, not what lands in your account after fees. If you invoiced $92,000 and spent $30,000 running the business, your turnover is $92,000.
Two things sit outside it for most trainers. It excludes the GST itself — a registered trainer billing $88,000 including GST has $80,000 of turnover. And it excludes income that isn't from your business, so wages from a shift at a gym you're employed by don't count toward your sole-trader threshold.
Prepaid packs make the timing question harder
If a client hands you $1,440 in January for twenty-four sessions you'll deliver by June, when does that count toward turnover — all of it in January, or as you work through the pack? That depends on how you account for GST and when the supply is treated as made, and it's a question for your agent with your actual numbers rather than one to settle from a web page. What matters practically is that a good month of pack sales can push you over the line well before your day-to-day income does. How to track prepaid session packs →
21 days — and what it costs to notice late
Once your turnover reaches the threshold on either test, you have 21 days to register. It's free, takes minutes through ATO online services or your agent, and attaches to the ABN you already have. Missing it is not a paperwork problem — it's a money problem. Setting up as a sole trader →
If you were required to be registered and weren't, your registration can be backdated to the date the obligation arose. Every sale from that date becomes a taxable sale, and the GST is one eleventh of what you charged — not 10% on top — because the law treats the price you collected as GST-inclusive. The trainer who crossed the line in March, kept invoicing $80 with no GST and got the letter in November owes $7.27 on every one of those sessions, out of money already spent. You can't add 10% to invoices your clients paid months ago.
On that book, eight months of trading is roughly $55,000 of income and about $5,000 of GST you never collected and now have to find. Credits on your business purchases over the same period soften it; penalties and interest may apply on top. The lesson isn't "register early" — it's watch the rolling number, because by the time it's obvious it's already expensive.
No, personal training isn't GST-free
The assumption behind this one is understandable. Health services really are treated differently: GST law contains a specific list of services that are GST-free when delivered by a recognised practitioner in one of the listed categories. Trainers hear "health and fitness" and assume they're in it.
They aren't. Personal training is an ordinary taxable supply. Being qualified, working alongside allied health professionals, taking GP referrals, writing programs for people managing a condition — none of that changes what you're selling for GST purposes.
Where it gets genuinely uncertain is the edge. Someone holding an allied health qualification and delivering a listed health service in that capacity may be in a different position from the same person taking a 6am bootcamp. If you sit near that line — accredited exercise physiology, work billed under a health fund or a care plan — that's a question for your agent, not something to reason your way to. Assuming you're GST-free when you aren't produces exactly the backdated bill above.
Training delivered under an NDIS participant's plan has its own set of conditions again. Don't assume either way — check before you price the work.
What actually changes the day you register
Three things, and only one of them is genuinely painful.
1. Your prices carry 10% — or you take the cut
This is the real decision, and it's a pricing one rather than a tax one. Say you charge $80 today.
- Add it. The session becomes $88. Your income per session is unchanged. Consumer clients feel the whole 10% because they can't claim it back.
- Absorb it. The session stays $80, of which $7.27 is now the ATO's. You keep $72.73. That is a 9.1% pay cut on every session you deliver, permanently.
Nine per cent is not a rounding error. On a $90,000 book that is a little over $8,000 a year, every year you stay registered. Absorbing GST is the most expensive habit a newly-registered trainer can fall into, and it is usually arrived at by default rather than decided.
The distinction worth drawing is who your client is. A GST-registered business — a gym you contract to, a corporate wellness program, a physio clinic — claims the GST straight back, so the increase costs them nothing. An individual paying out of their own pocket carries the full 10%. A common middle path is to add GST to business work immediately and bring individual rates up at your next scheduled review rather than overnight. What PTs actually charge in Australia →
2. Your invoices become tax invoices
They have to carry specific details — the words "tax invoice", your ABN, the GST amount or a statement that the total includes GST, and more again for larger amounts. Getting it wrong costs you little directly, but it costs your business clients their credit, which they will notice. What has to be on a PT invoice →
3. You lodge a BAS
Usually quarterly. GST collected on sales, less GST paid on business purchases, pay the difference — or get a refund, which happens in a year you kit out a studio. How to do your BAS →
Registering voluntarily, before you have to
Under $75,000 it's optional. It occasionally makes sense.
It can be worth it if you're about to spend real money on equipment or a fit-out and want the GST back on those purchases. Or if most of your income comes from GST-registered businesses, who don't care about the extra 10% because they claim it. Or if you're clearly heading past the threshold anyway and would rather set your pricing once.
It usually isn't worth it if your clients are individuals. You either raise their prices for nothing they can see or take the 9.1% yourself, and in exchange you add BAS lodgement for as long as you stay registered. At $50,000 with a book of everyday clients and no big purchases coming, voluntary registration is admin you've volunteered for.
Ride-sourcing has no threshold — drivers must register from the first dollar. Registration attaches to you, not to each activity, so if you drive between session blocks your training income is caught as well.
Not everything you buy comes with a credit
Being registered doesn't mean you claim a credit on every expense. Some purchases never carried Australian GST in the first place, and claiming one anyway is an error that sits quietly in your BAS until someone looks. Two rules before the table: you need a valid tax invoice to claim a credit on a purchase over $82.50 including GST, and where an expense is part-private (your phone being the obvious one) you claim the credit on the business share only.
| What you bought | GST credit? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment, insurance, marketing, licensing, gifts | Yes | Standard taxable purchases from Australian suppliers. Claim one eleventh of the total. Gifts are the exception to watch — where a gift is really food, drink or hospitality, the entertainment rules can deny the credit. |
| Gym floor rent or studio hire | Usually | Commercial rent carries GST. Residential premises are input taxed, so if you train out of a residential space the answer changes. |
| Software and apps | Check | Australian suppliers charge GST. Some overseas suppliers don't — if the invoice shows no Australian GST, there's no credit to claim. |
| Courses and CPD | Check | Most carry GST, but some accredited training delivered by a registered training organisation is GST-free. Read the invoice. |
| Phone and internet | Work share | Carries GST, but almost always part-private. Claim the credit on the business percentage. |
| Accountant and bookkeeper | Check | Plenty of small practices are under the threshold and don't charge GST. Momentum treats this category as GST-free by default for that reason — override it if your invoice shows GST. |
| Bank fees, merchant fees, interest | No | Financial supplies are input taxed. No credit — but they're still an income tax deduction. |
| Parking and tolls | No | Treated as outside the GST system in Momentum's default chart. Still deductible against income tax. |
| Coffee and light meals | No | No GST credit. Whether it's deductible at all is a separate and more contested question. |
The coffee line has no GST credit either way, so nothing in that row is in dispute. Whether your flat white is deductible at all is a contested question, and it has its own page. The coffee question, properly answered →
The errors aren't in the maths — they're in the classification
Nobody gets a BAS wrong by adding up badly. They get it wrong by claiming a credit on a bank fee, on an overseas subscription that never charged Australian GST, or on 100% of a phone bill that's half personal. Momentum tracks GST status per expense, applies the right default per category, apportions the part-private ones, and warns you before a wrong credit locks in.
See how it works → Built by an Australian PT of 12 years. Free 30-day trial.Cancelling if you drop back below
Turnover falls — you cut back hours, lose a corporate contract, take six months off. You can cancel your registration once you're no longer required to be registered, the same way you registered.
Two things to know first. If you registered voluntarily, there's generally a minimum period you have to stay registered before you can cancel — so it isn't something to switch on for one quarter to catch a big purchase and switch off again. And cancelling can trigger an adjustment on assets you still hold that you claimed credits for, which means handing some of that credit back. Neither is a reason not to cancel. Both are reasons to ask your agent.
And the rolling test works in both directions: one quiet quarter isn't the same as dropping below the threshold. Cancelling on the strength of a dip you then recover from makes more work than it saves.
Common questions
Do personal trainers have to charge GST?
Only once you're registered. Registration is compulsory when your GST turnover reaches $75,000 over a rolling 12-month period, and optional below it. Personal training is an ordinary taxable supply — not GST-free — so once you're registered every session you invoice carries 10%.
What is the GST threshold for a personal trainer?
$75,000 of GST turnover, and it isn't measured per financial year. You test the current month plus the previous 11, and the current month plus the next 11 based on what you reasonably expect. Either one reaching $75,000 triggers the obligation.
What happens if I register for GST late?
Your registration can be backdated to the date you were required to register, making every sale from then a taxable sale. One eleventh of that income becomes GST you owe, out of money already spent. Credits on your purchases over the same period soften it; penalties and interest may apply.
Do I add 10% to my session price or absorb it?
Absorbing it is a pay cut of about 9.1%, because you remit one eleventh of what you collect. Adding it is a 10% rise for consumer clients and costs a GST-registered business client nothing — they claim it straight back.
Should I register for GST voluntarily?
It can pay off if you're about to spend heavily on equipment, or if most of your income comes from GST-registered businesses. It usually doesn't if your clients are individuals, because you either raise their prices or take the cut yourself — and you lodge a BAS either way.
Can I cancel my GST registration if my income drops?
Yes, once you're no longer required to be registered. If you registered voluntarily there's generally a minimum period before you can cancel, and cancelling can trigger an adjustment on assets you claimed credits for and still hold.