Tue Aug 16, 2005 8:13 pm   Reply with quote      

Exercise/fitness is generally believed to be good for your health. This may contribute to reduce healthcare cost in the country. Should we have exercise/fitness tax deduction for this reason?

Tue Aug 16, 2005 9:08 pm   Reply with quote      

I think there's some mileage in this, yes. People that are overweight should be given some kind of incentive to get in shape. Maybe a financial incentive will just motivate them sufficiently.

Aaron

Tue Aug 16, 2005 9:14 pm   Reply with quote      

It's a tricky question. After all, they need to take half of their responsibility, and chances are they would be in good share if they took care of themselves right in the first place. However, like you said, we need to be pragmatic and non-judgmental often, and exercise/fitness tax deduction may not be a bad idea. Oh, ... can you actually deduct tax in UK if your company (I mean, your company) pays you for your gym membership?

Tue Aug 16, 2005 9:58 pm   Reply with quote      

Because I have a sports site, I could potentially argue that my membership is for business purposes but I think that could be clutching at straws a little. I'm not too sure the taxman would look favourably at it.

Aaron

Wed Aug 17, 2005 12:04 am   Reply with quote      

In my last job, the company paid for my gym membership for the most part. I'm pretty sure that it was counted as their expense.

Wed Aug 17, 2005 9:22 am   Reply with quote      

Perhaps it's different if a company purchases something like this for its employers, rather than for a director...?

Aaron

Wed Aug 17, 2005 3:35 pm   Reply with quote      

I don't know how it works. I'm pretty sure that the director (the president of the company) had gym membership, but he wasn't using it at all.

Slightly-off-topic:

If I understand correctly, several people had gym membership fully paid by the company, but most of them didn't go to gym at all. This is why the company changed their policy slightly and they asked employees to pay partially. Funny thing is that most people still didn't go. Membership fees were completely wasted. Only I and another guy made use.

Wed Aug 17, 2005 3:58 pm   Reply with quote      

...and look at you now. You're slim enough to fit into a batman costume.

Aaron

Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:14 pm   Reply with quote      

This reminded me of something. Wet suit (for surfing) is very tight, and it doesn't fit if you are over weight. I guess surfing is good for this reason, too; you can literally check the shape of your body as your surf.

Thu Aug 18, 2005 1:53 am   Reply with quote      

IRS OKs Weight Loss Tax Deduction

Obese Americans who take drastic, expensive action to lose weight under a doctor's orders will at least be able to lighten their tax load.

The Internal Revenue Service allows taxpayers who are forced to spend thousands of dollars because of obesity to deduct expenses for stomach-stapling surgery, approved weight-loss drugs and nutritional counseling.

...

And while the IRS allows taxpayers to deduct fees associated with programs such as Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig Inc., it does not allow participants to deduct the expense of diet food. There also is no deduction for joining a gym.

Source

Prevention should be at least equally important, but apparently not everyone sees that way.