GST on Gym Membership and the Receipt Format You Should Use

The GST on gym memberships changed in September 2025, and a lot of gyms are still charging the old rate or printing receipts that do not say what they should. Here is the current position, what a compliant gym receipt has on it, and a format you can copy.

This is a practical guide, not tax advice. Rates and classifications change, and your accountant knows your books. Confirm anything here with your CA before you change what you charge.

The rate, as it stands

Gym and fitness centre services moved from 18% to 5% on 22 September 2025, as part of the GST reform announced at the 56th GST Council meeting.

The important condition: the 5% rate comes without input tax credit. You charge your members less, and you can no longer claim credit on the GST you pay on rent, equipment, fit-out, electricity or marketing.

For an intra-state membership, the 5% splits as 2.5% CGST and 2.5% SGST. For inter-state, it is 5% IGST — rare for a gym, since the service is consumed where you are.

The classification sits under recreational, cultural and sporting services. Sources differ on the precise SAC code to print, so use the one your accountant has been filing under rather than one from a blog — including this one.

Does your gym even need to register?

Not every gym does. GST registration becomes mandatory once turnover crosses the threshold for services in your state. Below it, registration is voluntary.

Since the 5% rate carries no input tax credit, voluntary registration is now much less attractive than it was at 18% with credit. That is a conversation worth having with your CA rather than a decision to copy from another gym.

What belongs on a gym fee receipt

Whether or not you are registered, a receipt should let a member — and, one day, an auditor — see exactly what was paid for.

Always:

• Your gym's legal name and full address

• Receipt number, unique and in sequence

• Date of payment

• Member's name, and their membership number

• What was bought: the plan name and the period it covers, with dates

• Amount paid, in figures

• How it was paid: UPI, cash, card, bank transfer

• Any discount given, shown as a discount rather than a lower price

If you are GST registered, also:

• Your GSTIN

• The member's GSTIN, where they have one and ask for it

• Taxable value, before tax

• CGST and SGST shown separately, with the rate against each

• Total including tax

• The SAC code you file under

• A signature or a digital equivalent

The discount line matters more than it looks. A ₹1,500 plan sold for ₹1,200 should read "₹1,500, less ₹300 discount". Written as a flat ₹1,200, next year nobody remembers whether the plan costs ₹1,200 or whether that member was given a deal — and your revenue reporting quietly inherits the confusion.

A format you can copy

IRON HOUSE FITNESS
RZ-14, Main Market, New Delhi 110019
GSTIN: 07XXXXXXXXXXXZX

RECEIPT No. IH/2026/0417          Date: 20 September 2026

Member : Seema Yadav  (Member ID: IH-0142)
For    : Monthly membership
Period : 20 Sept 2026 to 19 Oct 2026

Plan price                            1,500.00
Less discount                           300.00
                                     ---------
Taxable value                         1,200.00
CGST @ 2.5%                              30.00
SGST @ 2.5%                              30.00
                                     ---------
Total paid                            1,260.00

Paid by UPI · Ref 4172XXXXXX83
SAC: as filed

This receipt is issued against the membership above.
For queries: 98XXXXXX38

Two habits worth keeping:

Number receipts in one unbroken sequence. One series for the whole gym, never restarting mid-year and never with gaps. A missing number is the first thing an auditor asks about.

Issue a receipt for cash too. Cash is where gym bookkeeping usually falls apart — not through dishonesty, but because nobody wrote it down and by Friday nobody remembers.

Doing this by hand does not scale

At forty members it is fine. At three hundred, hand-written receipts mean a number series somebody has to keep straight, a discount nobody recorded, and a renewal date that exists only in a register.

Software earns its place here by making the receipt a by-product of taking the money rather than a separate job — sequence kept automatically, the discount stored against the payment, the member able to download their own bill instead of phoning the desk for a copy.

CoachFit records the payment, the discount and the period, and gives the member the bill in their own app. See how fees and payments work, or what the whole thing costs.