Corporate fitness as a benefit in kind
Corporate fitness and vouchers are considered non-cash benefits. This is displayed accordingly in the employer portal.
Since March 1, 2025, corporate fitness through Urban Sports Club has been directly integrated into non-cash benefits. This means that employees—if approved by their employer—can choose between a voucher or a fitness membership with Urban Sports Club each month.
Important: The approved amount can be used either for Urban Sports Club or for a retailer voucher. A pro-rata split is not possible in the system.
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
Further information about Urban Sports Club via Probonio
Configuration of corporate fitness via Urban Sports Club in the employer portal
1. Activation
If you would like to offer corporate fitness as part of your benefits package and the module is not yet available to you, please contact your representative or our support team. We will be happy to activate the corresponding module for you.
2. (De-)activation of corporate fitness
The configuration is done directly in Benefit Gift cards:
Navigate to the Gift card tab in the employer portal and select the “Employees” menu item.
Select one or more employees and click on the “Change configuration for X employees” button in the top right corner.
Navigate to “Change options”.
Activate or deactivate “Company Fitness” using the slider.
Corporate fitness is only available for an approved non-cash benefit amount of €25, €40, or €50. These amounts correspond to the subsidy models for corporate membership M at Urban Sports Club.
Important: The amount of the flex budget/non-cash benefit cannot be adjusted for the current month if USC membership is active/a non-cash benefit has already been selected.
Overview of usage
In the employer portal, under Gift cards → Orders → Corporate Fitness, you can see which employees have used or are currently using Urban Sports Club in which month.
Payroll export
Urban Sports Club is now also integrated into payroll export.
If corporate fitness is activated, a wage type for corporate fitness must be stored in the payroll data export.
Please ask your accounting department or tax advisor which wage type is used for payroll accounting.
Urban Sports Club in the Flex Budget
If you use the Flex Budget, the configuration works in exactly the same way.
With the Flex Budget, the next available subsidy model is automatically stored in USC, and any remaining balance can then be used for other benefits (except vouchers), so that the statutory limit for benefits in kind is not exceeded.
Example: Flex Budget of 45€
The employee can register with Urban Sports Club for 40€ in the subsidy model and still has 5€ available to use for other benefits.
Further information about Urban Sports Club via Probonio
Your employees can now register with USC. To do so, they select the USC benefit in the Probonio app and are redirected to the USC registration page. There, they register with the email address they have stored with Probonio. Then they download the Urban Sports Club app to take advantage of the sports and wellness offerings, book classes, and check in at local sports partners.
Probonio manages the registration and membership contracts and synchronizes the users in your employer portal.
If your employees already have a private membership with Urban Sports Club and want to switch to the Probonio x Urban Sports Club offer, this membership must first be terminated at least three days before the end of the billing cycle and a new registration must be made via Probonio.
Further information about USC x Probonio
- Probonio offers your employees flexible M-Business membership
- In general, Urban Sports Club membership can be used by all employees. Business partners are not included.
- With Probonio, your employees can flexibly decide each month whether they would prefer to use their USC membership or the voucher selection, if you so desire. The entire process is handled by Probonio.
- When your employees select the Urban Sports Club voucher via the Probonio app, a binding decision is made to receive this benefit for the respective month. For tax and organisational reasons, it is not possible to change or cancel the selection retrospectively.
Subsidy options
The cost of membership at Urban Sports Club is 50€ per month (M-Business membership). However, you can choose from the following three subsidy options by activating the corresponding gift card 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 membership, the difference will be billed directly to your employees as a monthly contribution via Urban Sports Club. Employees have the option of specifying their preferred payment method during the registration process.
What does the Probonio x Urban Sports Club membership offer?
The M-Business membership provides your employees with the following benefits:
- No registration fees
- One check-in per day at partner studios – including 8 check-ins per month for live online courses
- 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 wide selection of live online courses
- More than 350 hours of video-on-demand courses available
- Interactive masterclasses on topics related to health, work-life balance, and nutrition
- Flexible cancellation option
Tax information about USC
- Corporate fitness falls under the category of benefits in kind, which means that Urban Sports Club membership can be subsidized tax-free up to a monthly allowance of 50€.
- Further information on benefits in kind can be found here
- Distinction between cash benefits and benefits in kind: BMF letter
- Income tax treatment of benefits in kind: § 8 (1) EStG
- Regulation of the monthly exemption limit: Section 8.1 (3) LStR/Section 8 (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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