Should Health Club Memberships Be Taxed?

Pamela Kufahl December 30th, 2008

The governor of New York, David Paterson, is proposing that health club memberships be taxed. Other states have proposed this option, too, some successfully and others not. Read more about the New York proposal here, and go to the bottom of this story for other states that proposed taxes on memberships.

Let us know what you think about taxing these services. How do you think it will affect health club memberships if this goes forward? If you are in a state that already taxes health club memberships, how has it affected your business?

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2 Comments to “Should Health Club Memberships Be Taxed?”

Ken Welch Says:

January 9th, 2009 at 8:47 pm

It’s already hard enough to get people to adhear to an exercise program, let’s see if we can make things even more difficult. We have a fat nation and a health club industry that continues to identify more and more with corperate america.

At a time when there’s more talk than ever about what to do with the high cost of health care we would allow politicians to stick it to us again. Fitness facilities that are in the business for the right reasons have a real chance in the next few months to be front and center with the most fundamental start to health care cost, workout. So let’s have these people find a way to try to take advantage of the situation instead of encouraging americans to workout with tax credits and write-offs and incentives for working out.

IHRSA and The Fitness Industry need to speak up or get ready to bend over.

Ken Welch/Pointe Fitness
sean graham Says:

January 12th, 2009 at 10:34 am

IHRSA and other industry groups need to join together and lobby Congress and the state law makers to make the point that exercising is one of the key factors in preventative care and thus a key component of reducing health care costs. It is also a sign of a self-determined individual, the foundation of our country. If the industry were to find a way to standardize the process of tracking member usage and results, they would be able to present “proof” that exercising at clubs is important to the health of the nation. If this were so, we may be able to convince law makers that instead of taxing health club memberships, they should in fact give tax credits instead.