Accountants for Personal Trainers
Self assessment, the expenses most trainers under-claim, and Making Tax Digital now that it has actually started. Handled on a fixed monthly fee agreed before any work begins.
- Regulated by the ACCA
- Preetesh Parmar FCCA, Tidy Money Ltd
- Fixed monthly fee
- Agreed in writing before any work starts
- Everything in writing
- No call needed to find out what it costs
Tell us about your training business
- Fixed fee up front
- No obligation
- Reply within 1 working day
Three Things Worth Knowing This Year
Mileage Went Up to 55p
The rate for the first 10,000 business miles rose from 45p to 55p, published in June 2026 and backdated to April. Most guidance you will read still says 45p.
Making Tax Digital Has Started
From 6 April 2026 for qualifying income over £50,000, dropping to £30,000 in 2027 and £20,000 in 2028. Quarterly updates rather than one return a year.
Going Limited Costs You the Flat Rates
Simplified expenses are not available to limited companies, so incorporating loses you both the mileage and home working flat rates. It rarely appears in the comparison.
What You Have To File and When
| What you file | Deadline | Applies over |
|---|---|---|
| Register for Self Assessment | 5 October after the end of the tax year | £1,000 |
| Self assessment return, filed online | 31 January 2027 for the 2025 to 2026 tax year | £1,000 |
| Making Tax Digital quarterly updates | Already started, from 6 April 2026 | £50,000 |
| VAT registration | Within 30 days of the end of the month you went over | £90,000 |
Thresholds and dates from HMRC guidance on Self Assessment deadlines and on Making Tax Digital eligibility. The £1,000 figure is the trading allowance.
Most self-employed personal trainers do not have a complicated tax position. They have a straightforward one that nobody has ever explained to them, and a couple of deadlines that carry automatic penalties. That combination is what produces the January panic and the expenses that never get claimed.
Two things changed in 2026 and both of them are worth money. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax started in April for anyone whose qualifying income was over £50,000, and the mileage rate went up from 45p to 55p for the first 10,000 business miles, backdated to April. Work delivered by Tidy Money Ltd, an ACCA firm, on a fee agreed in writing before anything starts.
What Changed for Trainers in April 2026
The mileage rate rose from 45p to 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles, with the rate above that staying at 25p. It was announced on 17 June 2026 and backdated to 6 April 2026, so a trainer driving between clients or gyms has been earning relief at the higher rate since the start of the tax year whether they knew it or not. Most published guidance still quotes 45p. The detail is on the expenses page.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax also began on 6 April 2026, for anyone whose qualifying income in the 2024 to 2025 tax year was over £50,000. That means quarterly updates to HMRC rather than one return a year. The £30,000 threshold follows in April 2027 and £20,000 in April 2028, so most working trainers are inside it within two years even if they are outside it now.
What You Can Actually Claim
Insurance, professional body membership, CPD and requalification courses, kit and equipment, gym rent or floor fees, music licensing, coaching software and the business share of your phone. The rule is the same across all of them: the cost has to be for the business, and where something is used personally as well you claim only the business proportion.
Two flat rates are worth knowing about because they remove the arithmetic. Mileage at 55p and 25p, and working from home at £10, £18 or £26 a month depending on whether you do 25 to 50, 51 to 100, or 101 or more hours a month there. The home rate does not cover telephone and internet, which are worked out separately. Neither flat rate is available to a limited company.
The one that catches trainers is clothing. A uniform is claimable and ordinary sportswear generally is not, however much of it you get through. Trying to claim the latter is a small amount of money and a large amount of credibility to lose if the return is ever looked at.
Renting Space in a Gym
This is the only genuinely awkward question in the trade, and it is an employment status question rather than a tax rate one. A trainer who rents floor space, finds their own clients, sets their own prices and works their own hours looks self-employed. A trainer on a rota, taking clients assigned by the gym, at rates the gym sets, starts to look like something else.
It is decided on the facts of the arrangement rather than on what the contract calls it, so nobody can tell you your status from the outside, including us and including anyone selling you a template contract. HMRC publishes a tool, Check Employment Status for Tax, and says it will stand by the result as long as the information given is accurate and in line with its guidance. It needs a contract in place or expected.
If your gym has recently changed how it engages trainers, that is the moment to look at it rather than after a year of filing on the old basis.
What We Do Not Do
We do not tell anyone their employment status, and we are suspicious of anyone who does it quickly. We will work through the tests with you and help you use HMRC's own tool, which is a different thing from an opinion dressed up as an answer.
We are not a fitness business coach and we do not sell marketing. Work is delivered by Tidy Money Ltd, regulated by the ACCA, and we do not advise on investments or anything else that needs FCA authorisation.
Guides
Self-employed trainers
This guide covers registering with HMRC, the trading allowance, National Insurance and the filing deadlines.
Expenses
This guide covers gym rent, kit, CPD, the 55p mileage rate from April 2026 and the home working flat rates.
Sole trader or limited
This guide covers how each structure is taxed, the flat rates a company cannot use, and when incorporating starts to pay.
Employment status
This guide covers why the contract does not decide your status, the tests that do, and what CEST settles.
Starting up
This guide covers registering, the records to keep from day one, and what the first tax bill actually looks like.
Common questions
Do I need to file a tax return as a personal trainer?
If your gross self-employed income is over the £1,000 trading allowance, yes. You have to tell HMRC by 5 October following the end of the tax year, and the online return for the 2025 to 2026 tax year is due by 31 January 2027, which is also the payment deadline.
What is the mileage rate for 2026?
55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles and 25p above that. It rose from 45p and the change is backdated to 6 April 2026, so miles driven since the start of the tax year qualify at the higher rate.
Does Making Tax Digital apply to me?
It started on 6 April 2026 for anyone whose qualifying income in 2024 to 2025 was over £50,000. The threshold drops to £30,000 from April 2027 and £20,000 from April 2028. Exemptions exist, for example for people who are digitally excluded, and the conditions are on HMRC's own guidance rather than summarised here.
Should I be a sole trader or a limited company?
It depends on your profit, whether you want to leave money in the business, and how much administration you are willing to take on. Note that simplified expenses, including the mileage and home working flat rates, cannot be used by a limited company, which is a real cost that often gets left out of the comparison.
I rent space in a gym. Am I self-employed?
Probably, but it turns on the facts of the arrangement rather than the label in the contract, so nobody can answer it for you from the outside. HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax tool gives its view, and HMRC will stand by that result as long as the information entered is accurate and in line with its guidance.
What does it cost?
A fixed monthly fee, agreed in writing before any work starts, once we have seen roughly what you bill and how you are set up. Nothing is charged until you agree it.
Find out what it costs before you commit
Tell us roughly what you bill in a year, whether you rent space in a gym or train clients elsewhere, and whether you have filed a return before. We come back with a fixed monthly fee and the deadlines that apply to you.
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