Taxing Yoga In New York City
City Hall Auditing Taxes On Some Yoga Studios
04/02/2012 | 11:46 AM
People who go to yoga studios in New York City should brace for higher prices for classes as the city is enforcing a yoga tax.
City tax enforcers have decided that yoga studios are subject to a 4.5% sales in the same way fitness studios are taxed.
The Wall Street Journal reports " The New York Department of Taxation and Finance has decided that yoga studios fall into a category of businesses—specifically weight control or health salons—that must pay the city's levy, officials said. The decision was revealed last April in a bulletin from the department and is now sinking in as yoga studios across the city prepare their taxes."
The yoga advocacy group Yoga for New York said on its website "We are trying to find out if, in fact, the tax is appropriate. Yoga classes are not specifically listed among the services and classes that are taxable. The matter is therefore open to interpretation. But this could mean adding close to $1.00 to a $20 class, a cost that gets passed on to the student, alas, and that also might mean waiting longer to raise the price of a class if that was in the cards for this year.One studio is being sued for three years of back taxes, which makes this an even more threatening situation, as those back taxes would have to come out of the studio owner's pocket. This needs to be addressed head on and swiftly."
New York state actually collects the yoga tax on behalf of the city and usually when the taxman makes a decision it sticks so chances are New Yorkers will have to pony up and pay more for their yoga classes
City tax enforcers have decided that yoga studios are subject to a 4.5% sales in the same way fitness studios are taxed.
The Wall Street Journal reports " The New York Department of Taxation and Finance has decided that yoga studios fall into a category of businesses—specifically weight control or health salons—that must pay the city's levy, officials said. The decision was revealed last April in a bulletin from the department and is now sinking in as yoga studios across the city prepare their taxes."
The yoga advocacy group Yoga for New York said on its website "We are trying to find out if, in fact, the tax is appropriate. Yoga classes are not specifically listed among the services and classes that are taxable. The matter is therefore open to interpretation. But this could mean adding close to $1.00 to a $20 class, a cost that gets passed on to the student, alas, and that also might mean waiting longer to raise the price of a class if that was in the cards for this year.One studio is being sued for three years of back taxes, which makes this an even more threatening situation, as those back taxes would have to come out of the studio owner's pocket. This needs to be addressed head on and swiftly."
New York state actually collects the yoga tax on behalf of the city and usually when the taxman makes a decision it sticks so chances are New Yorkers will have to pony up and pay more for their yoga classes
