The employer pays for fitness for employees: what about personal income tax, contributions, VAT and income tax?

Measures to improve working conditions

Employers must take some measures every year to improve working conditions for their employees. Companies are required to do this at their own expense. The list of activities that companies can carry out as part of these events is given in the order of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of Russia No. 181n dated 03/01/2012. This list contains activities that are aimed at developing physical education and sports among company employees. For example, costs to improve working conditions include:

• Compensation for employees to pay for the gym in sports clubs or fitness centers;
• Organization and conduct of physical therapy and industrial gymnastics;
• Organization of gyms and clubs for sports activities for employees directly at their place of work.

It is not necessary to carry out absolutely all of them. Each company has the right to choose those activities that, from their point of view, are the most effective and appropriate. Then approve your own list. It is important to take into account that the total costs of implementing such measures do not exceed 0.2% of all production costs (226 Labor Code of the Russian Federation). Companies are not required to bear large costs. One of the activities included in this list may be payment for sports activities, for example, partial or full compensation for the cost of subscriptions to sports clubs or sections. Having decided to pay for the gym to employees, it is important to properly formalize and take into account such compensation.

Important! Compensation for payment for sports activities carried out at the expense of the employer can be paid from the current profits of the company, or from the funds of the created reserve fund. The company decides from which sources the payment will be made independently.

Income tax

According to paragraphs. 7 clause 1 art. 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, other expenses related to production and sales taken into account for profit tax purposes include expenses for ensuring normal working conditions and safety measures provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation. Thus, the costs of implementing measures to improve working conditions and labor protection can be taken into account as part of other costs associated with production and sales, based on the specified paragraph. 7, subject to their compliance with the criteria established by Art. 252 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. These are the arguments presented in the Letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated 08/09/2011 N 03-03-06/4/95. Moreover, the Ministry of Health and Social Development, based on this position of the financiers, added the following. Labor legislation previously did not contain a list of measures to improve the working conditions of employees, so the employer had the right to use the funds provided for these purposes at its own discretion. Some employers, using funds allocated to finance occupational safety measures, financed activities that were not directly related to improving working conditions in the workplace. For example, some of them primarily resolved social issues, providing workers with hot meals, but did not pay attention to the technical equipment of workplaces. The standard list is focused on solving this problem (Letter dated May 25, 2012 N TZ/3159-3-5).

Thus, expenses for activities aimed at developing physical culture and sports in work collectives, it would seem, could well be taken into account for profit tax purposes as part of other expenses. However, officials of the Ministry of Finance, after the Model List was expanded to include activities aimed at developing physical culture and sports in work collectives, had objections to this matter based on the provisions of paragraph 29 of Art. 270 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. According to this norm, when determining the tax base for income tax, the following are not taken into account:

— expenses for payment for vouchers for treatment or recreation, excursions or travel, classes in sports sections, clubs or clubs, visits to cultural, entertainment or physical education (sports) events;

— expenses for paying for subscriptions that are not related to subscriptions to normative, technical and other literature used for production purposes;

— expenses for paying for goods for personal consumption of employees;

- other similar expenses made for the benefit of employees.

In this regard, the costs of carrying out activities for the development of physical culture and sports, including the costs of paying employees for sports in clubs and sections, cannot be included in tax expenses (Letters dated November 11, 2014 N 03-03-06/1/56736, from 31.10.2014 N 03-03-06/1/55280, from 30.10.2014 N 03-03-06/2/54994, from 29.10.2014 N 03-03-06/1/54903, from 17.10.2014 N 03-03-06/1/52376).

According to the author, if an enterprise has developed an action plan for the corresponding year to improve working conditions and safety, which provides for compensation for employees to pay for sports activities in clubs and sections, the costs of paying employees for classes in a fitness club can be taken into account for profit tax purposes.

Accounting. Postings

To reflect compensation for sports activities for employees, account 73 “Settlements with personnel for other operations” is used. In this case, compensation expenses are included in other expenses.

Answers to common questions about whether sports compensation is paid

Question No. 1: Should the employer in any way document the payment of compensation for sports activities by employees?

Answer: Yes, you will need to draw up a list of sports activities that are subject to compensation, submit the document to the trade union organization, and stipulate the conditions for payment of compensation in the labor and collective agreement.

Question No. 2: Is personal income tax withheld from compensation for sports activities for employees?

Answer: Yes, because the accountant usually frames the payment as a bonus for excellent performance. Moreover, insurance contributions to the funds must also be withheld.

Let's take a closer look at the example

In February 2020, accountant O.P. Petrova was paid compensation for paying for a gym at a fitness center. An additional agreement was drawn up to the employment contract with Petrova, according to which the employee was entitled to compensation in the amount of 2,500 rubles.

Let's consider the procedure for conducting business transactions:

Will the law on paying for fitness work?

And yet, from the point of view of current legislation, the obligation of employers to pay their employees for visiting fitness clubs cannot be fully called a duty. In this case, you can refer to Article 226 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, which provides for the financing of measures to improve working conditions and labor protection in the amount of no less than 0.2% of the cost of producing the decoction (work, services). Moreover, the list of these activities includes not only the development of physical culture. Consequently, the employer can determine the necessary list of these measures based on the specifics of professional risks or even the company’s activities. In other words, he may consider it more necessary to place thematic stands about labor protection or, directly for the development of the physical culture of his employees, he will install a simple treadmill in the staff rest room.

The Ministry of Labor makes the following recommendations: at a general meeting, work collectives themselves can propose to the employer that the money allocated for these needs be spent directly on paying for subscriptions to fitness centers. Perhaps here it is worth involving a trade union or representatives of work collectives, who are obliged to agree with the employer on a list of measures to preserve and improve working conditions, traditionally compiled for the year. We must not forget about other types of possible compensation: holding physical education and health activities within the enterprise, purchasing your own sports equipment, creating your own sports club or playground, reconstructing old playgrounds, paying the wages of coaches hired for your employees, etc.

Procedure for processing compensation payment

Important! Compensation for gym workers can be provided for in an employment contract, or an additional agreement to it, or a collective agreement.

To do this, the contract can provide the following clause: “The employer pays employees monthly compensation for the cost of sports in any (fitness centers) and sections in the amount of _____ rubles, but no more than the actual costs incurred by the employees for the corresponding month. The payment is made within the salary payment period upon provision to the Employer of a copy of the agreement concluded between the employee and the fitness club, as well as copies of documents confirming actual sports expenses (payment order, payment receipt, checks, etc.).”

Compensation for sports activities for employees of enterprises

The Government of the Russian Federation assumed that workers’ expenses would not be fully compensated, but partially, namely 75% of the actual costs incurred:

• 50% must be compensated by the manager from personal funds;
• 25% is compensated from the state budget by transferring funds to the employer.

If you consider how much gym memberships cost today, we can assume that the amounts are not bad. However, this 75% will be calculated based on the size of the minimum wage in force in the region and the total cost of the company.

The employer can allocate no more than 0.2% of the company’s total production and sales costs to pay compensation for sports activities. For compensation of costs, the company's management must apply to local governments.

The video reveals information about fitness for the employee⇓

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The legislative framework

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The employer must pay for employee fitness

Deputies from A Just Russia believe that Russians should pay only a quarter of the cost of visiting health and fitness centers. On January 20, the State Duma plans to consider a bill on this at a plenary session.

The Ministry of Labor recommends

In July 2014, an order of the Russian Ministry of Labor came into force, which recommends that employers pay employees for physical education and sports. Changes have been included in the list of measures implemented annually by the employer to improve labor conditions and safety and reduce levels of occupational risks, approved by the Russian Ministry of Health in 2012.

This list contains 32 expense items, including the development of sports in work collectives. It is envisaged that the company itself decides which activities it will pay for. It can compensate employees for sports activities in clubs and sections, or organize physical education and sports events, industrial gymnastics, and pay employees for physical therapy.

An employer can purchase sports equipment and set up a space in the office for sports activities.

“The health of workers depends not only on traditional measures implemented by the employer, for example, passing off milk as harmful, but also on the extent to which a person engages in sports and physical exercise, thereby relieving stress and physical inactivity,” says the director of the Department of Labor Conditions and Safety of the Ministry of Labor Valery Korzh.

He emphasized that now the employer himself chooses whether to pay or not to pay for sports activities for employees. But for companies whose employees spend their working hours at the computer, compensation for sports activities is an effective measure.

“This will work to improve health and productivity in the organization,” says Valery Korzh.

A group of deputies from A Just Russia, led by faction leader Sergei Mironov, proposes to make changes to the Labor Code. It is established that the state pays 50 percent of the cost of the subscription, and the employer 25 percent.

The bill applies only to those physical culture and sports organizations that have a license to carry out medical activities.

Among them are sports complexes, physical education and health centers, sports palaces, fitness clubs and children's and youth physical training clubs.

Many private entrepreneurs look a little further than just their pockets and build a fitness center in the office

The total amount to be compensated monthly should not exceed 25 percent of the minimum wage in a certain region. To receive money, an employee must exercise systematically and document his sports activities.

As for the 25 percent payment for fitness by the employer, only those employees who have worked in the organization for at least three years will be able to receive these funds. According to the authors of the bill, such compensation will encourage people to play sports and maintain the health of employees, and therefore increase labor productivity.

According to the deputy head of the A Just Russia faction, one of the authors of the initiative, Oleg Nilov, now many employers pay for transport, housing, sick leave, but there is not enough money for physical education and sports.

According to him, different countries have different motivations for a healthy lifestyle. Somewhere they support people who do not smoke, and somewhere they set reduced prices for visiting sports clubs. Some organizations, including in Russia, have gyms located right in the office or next to it.

“A person who does not comply with the work and rest schedule ultimately works ineffectively.” Oleg Nilov is confident that the parliamentary center, which will someday be built, will have a fitness center, but the building on Okhotny Ryad will not have a gym - “deputies already go in for sports at their place of residence.”

Go to If the employer does not allow you to go on vacation

Where can I get money?

Most deputies approve of the idea of ​​the bill, but doubt that its implementation is possible in practice.

Alexander Prokopyev, a member of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture, Sports, Tourism and Youth Affairs of United Russia, told Parliamentary Newspaper that maintaining a healthy lifestyle is the choice of every person.

“Today there are many sports opportunities available. Whether to use them or not, in what way and how intensively, a person decides for himself, he believes. “The role of the state is not to limit it in this.”

The mechanism proposed in the bill is incorrect and will not work.

Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs, deputy head of the LDPR faction Yaroslav Nilov supports the desire to promote a healthy lifestyle and provide people with the opportunity to play sports.

“But the mechanism proposed in the bill is incorrect and will not work,” the deputy believes. — There we are talking about sports organizations that have a medical license, and there are very few of them. In addition, the bill imposes an additional burden on the employer and the state.

But the source of funding from the budget has not been determined.” As an alternative, the LDPR proposes a number of incentive measures to encourage citizens to lead a healthy lifestyle and play sports. For example, if a person does not smoke, the employer can give him additional days off, and if he is never sick, he can also be encouraged, including by providing the opportunity for preferential visits to sports organizations.

The Ministry of Labor recommends