Corporate Fitness as a Non-Cash Benefit
Corporate fitness and vouchers are classified as so-called non-cash benefits. This is displayed and managed accordingly in the employer portal.
Since March 1, 2025, corporate fitness via Urban Sports Club has been directly integrated into the non-cash benefits. As a result, employees—if approved by the employer—have the choice each month between a voucher or a fitness membership with Urban Sports Club.
Important: The approved amount can be used either for Urban Sports Club or for a retailer voucher. A partial split is not possible system-wise.
Configuration of Corporate Fitness via Urban Sports Club in the Employer Portal
2. (De-)Activation of Corporate Fitness
Urban Sports Club in the Flex Budget
More Information about Urban Sports Club via Probonio
Configuration of Corporate Fitness via Urban Sports Club in the Employer Portal
1. Activation
If you want to offer corporate fitness as part of non-cash benefits and the module is not yet available to you, please contact your contact person or our support. We will be happy to activate the corresponding module for you.
2. (De-)Activation of Corporate Fitness
The configuration is done directly in the Benefit Non-Cash Benefit:
Navigate in the employer portal to the tab Non-Cash Benefit and select the menu item Employees.
Select one or more employees and then click the button at the top right Change configuration for X employees.
Navigate to Change options.
Activate or deactivate Corporate Fitness using the toggle switch.
Corporate fitness is only available for an approved non-cash benefit amount of 25 euros, 40 euros, or 50 euros. These amounts correspond to the subsidy models for the M membership at Urban Sports Club.
Notes: The amount of the Flex Budget/Non-Cash Benefit cannot be adjusted for the current month if an active USC membership / already chosen non-cash benefit exists.
Ending corporate fitness as well as the non-cash benefit (including corporate fitness) is only possible up to 5 days before the end of the month due to the deadline at Urban Sports Club!
Usage Overview
In the employer portal, under Non-Cash Benefit > Orders > Corporate Fitness, you can see which employees have used or are currently using Urban Sports Club in which month.
Payroll Data Export
Urban Sports Club is now also integrated into the payroll data export.
If corporate fitness is activated, a wage type for corporate fitness must be stored in the payroll data export.
Please check with your accounting department or tax advisor which wage type is used for billing here.
Urban Sports Club in the Flex Budget
If you use the Flex Budget, the configuration basically works the same way.
With the Flex Budget, the next available subsidy model in USC is automatically stored. Any remaining balance is then available for the use of other benefits (excluding vouchers), so that the legally prescribed non-cash benefit limit is not exceeded.
Example: Flex Budget of 45 €
The employee can register with the 40 € subsidy model at Urban Sports Club and still has 5 € available to use for other benefits.
More Information about Urban Sports Club via Probonio
Your employees can now register with USC. To do this, they select the USC Benefit in the Probonio app and are redirected to the USC registration page. There they register with their email address stored in Probonio. Afterwards, they download the Urban Sports Club app to use the sports and wellness offerings, book classes, and check in with local sports partners.
Probonio manages the registration and membership contracts and synchronizes users into your employer portal.
If your employees already use a private membership with Urban Sports Club and want to switch to the Probonio x Urban Sports Club offer, this membership must be terminated no later than three days before the end of the billing cycle and a new registration via Probonio must be done.
More Information about USC x Probonio
- Through Probonio, your employees receive the flexible M-Business membership of Urban Sports Club.
- In general, the Urban Sports Club membership can be used by all employees. Business partners are not included.
- With Probonio, your employees can flexibly decide each month, if desired by you, whether they want to use the USC membership or prefer the voucher selection. The processing is done entirely through Probonio.
- By selecting the Urban Sports Club voucher through the Probonio app, your employees make a binding decision for this benefit in the respective month. For tax and organizational reasons, a subsequent change or withdrawal of the selection is excluded.
Subsidy Options
The cost for a membership at Urban Sports Club is 50 € monthly (M-Business membership). However, you can flexibly choose from the following three subsidy options by activating the corresponding non-cash benefit amount for the employee.
- 50.00 € Employer / 0.00 € Employee
- 40.00 € Employer / 9.90 € Employee
- 25.00 € Employer / 24.90 € Employee
If you do not cover the full cost of the membership, the difference amount will be billed monthly directly to your employees as their personal contribution via Urban Sports Club. For this, they have the option to specify their preferred payment method during the registration process.
What is possible with the Probonio x Urban Sports Club Membership?
The M-Business membership offers your employees the following benefits:
- No registration fees
- One check-in per day at partner studios—included are 8 check-ins per month for live online classes
- Self-management and use via the Urban Sports Club app
- Simple online registration process via the Probonio portal access
- Access to more than 6,000 sports partners in Germany
- More than 50 sports, leisure, and wellness activities
- A large selection of live online classes
- More than 350 hours availability of video-on-demand classes
- Interactive masterclasses on topics related to health, work-life balance, and nutrition
- Flexible cancellation options
Tax Information about USC
- Corporate fitness is classified as a non-cash benefit; therefore, the Urban Sports Club membership can be subsidized tax-free up to a monthly allowance of 50 €
- Further information on non-cash benefits can be found here
- Distinction between cash payment and non-cash benefit: BMF letter
- Income tax treatment of non-cash benefits: § 8 para. 1 EStG
- Regulation of the exemption limit per month: 8.1 para. 3 LStR / § 8 para. 2 sentence 11 EStG
Translation Note: This article has been translated using automatic translation software to provide the reader with a basic understanding of the content. Despite reasonable efforts to provide an accurate translation, we cannot guarantee its accuracy.
If there are any questions regarding the accuracy of the information in the translated article, please refer to the German version of the article, which is the official version.
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