Tax season is a bitch. New York yoga studios are facing the Queen B.
Is yoga fitness? Should it be taxed as so? Will practitioners have to pay for it? These are questions on New York studio owners’ minds lately. For years yoga has slid by without paying NY sales tax. That changed last April when the New York Department of Taxation and Finance ruled to include yoga studios in the category of businesses based around fitness rather than movement spaces (dance studios aren’t taxed). Since then, yoga studios have been getting audited across NY and the tax man is coming to collect, which could slam some and bankrupt others.
The story, which we first reported at the end of March, has received media attention and climbed its way to the Wall Street Journal and Businessweek thanks in part to the efforts of the advocacy organization and (circumstantial) lobbying group, Yoga for New York. Government officials believe yoga studios should have to pay sales tax just like any other fitness or health club.
“We do see this as a fairness issue,” said Edward Walsh, a spokesman for the Department of Taxation and Finance, noting that Pilates studios have to pay sales tax. “Businesses that provide similar services should be subject to the same taxes in the city.”
The department believes the tax is legal under a 1971 state law which allows cities of more than a million people to collect sales tax on weight-control salons, health salons, gymnasiums, and Turkish and sauna baths.
The department’s view is that yoga studios should count themselves lucky for getting away without paying sales tax for as long as they have.
“It is our position that sales tax always applied to businesses offering yoga under this business model,” Mr. Walsh said.
But many yoga studios disagree, or are at least fighting for a little break on having to pay back taxes, which could be around the $100,000 mark for New York Yoga, for example. They claim they didn’t know about the tax until auditors came demanding the moolah and argue yoga isn’t about weight loss and massage.
Meetings have been held by Yoga for New York (the org that formed in 2009 to fight government regulation on yoga licensing and won) where studio owners have united to brainstorm ideas on how to stop the tax, to help those who were audited and to prepare the potentially inevitable for others.
Some studios have started paying sales tax as a preemptive measure, which unfortunately for the students, would mean raising class prices.
“To do this without talking to us, and then to audit studios, we feel is deeply inappropriate,” says Alison West, executive director of Yoga for New York, the lobby group that’s spearheading a charge to reverse the legislation. “The tax itself would be passed on, unfortunately, to students, making their classes more expensive—but the back taxes, which could add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, could actually bankrupt a studio because it’s money that would have to come out of its very unlined pockets,” she adds.
An email plea from Kula Yoga’s Schuyler Grant sent out to the studio’s mailing list called the sales tax “extortion” and provoked everyone to get involved.
“Our broke ass state is trying to squeeze money out of an industry that they see growing in these rough economic times. Namely … Yoga. If their various extortion schemes are successful, a lot of small yoga studios are going to go out of business. And your yoga classes are going to go up. Maybe a lot.”
The movement to push back on the gov’s taxation is growing. A petition entitled “My yoga studio is not a gym!” was created to be handed in to the City Planning Office. They’re looking for 750 signatures and at time of publishing they’ve just 153 to go.
Stop the city from requiring that yoga studios obtain the same costly PCE permit that giant franchised fitness centers are required to have. Yoga studios are not massage parlors nor are they fitnes[sic] studios!The city has moved to categorize yoga studios as fitness centers and not movement spaces, which requires costly new permits and licensing fees which are grossly inappropriate for businesses of this scale.
An additional petition asking once again to fully put a stop to the sales tax push and the audits and to relieve any studios facing back taxes will be delivered to the NYC Department of Finance.
Stop the proposed tax on the sale of yoga classesThere is a huge push against yoga studios as a source of taxation and funding at both the city and state level. An increasing number of studios are facing legal investigation for violating these new and poorly understood government regulations.This has meant burdensome lawyers fees, penalties, back-tax bills and other administrative costs which are threatening the vitality of many studios in our city. We are calling upon our local officials to not impose this service tax and to stop all audits demanding years of back taxes.
They’re at 578 signatures shooting for 750 as well.
And yet there is another issue! NY’s Department of Labor is trying to classify yoga teachers as employees vs. independent contractors, which causes a few problems.
“Consider this,” says West. “If a teacher teaches at five different studios, that means that whatever the insurance company is, it would be making off with five times that amount of money for just one teacher. There’s something wrong with this picture.”
This week (and all month in some cases) many studios are joining forces to host benefit classes, donating the money to a collective fund that Yoga for New York will use to advocate and lobby. Check out the full list of classes here.
Yes, it’s a fine mess, wrapped in money and tied up with many strings attached. We’ll keep you posted with any updates or developments.
And we’ll leave you with the same questions we presented a few weeks ago.
Perhaps the biggest question here, and in other cases before or after, is how does government define yoga? And if forced, or even given the liberty, to declare ourselves, how would we define it?
——
Earlier…
- Sales Tax Issues Plague NY Yoga Studios – What Is Yoga to the Government?
- Welfare Yoga: Policy Follows Practice in Trend of Yoga for All
- The State Debate: Is Yoga Taxable? Updates on Wash. DC, Missouri and Licensing in Texas
- Make-a-Buck-Asana: It’s a Yoga Branding World and Somebody’s Gotta Trademark It
- Make Up or Break Up: Yoga Alliance, What Have You Done for Us Lately?
- Yoga Gets Hotter (Like 110 Degrees), Or the Sweat Obsession and the Detox Myth
If you teach Asana while ignoring the other 7 limbs, expect to be labelled a fitness center or “gym.”
Amen!
That’s yet another thing my former studio lied to me about. That they paid sales taxes. Well, I need not bother with any of them much. And when I’d gone to a gym, they’d made me pay state sales taxes …
Yoga studios should pay taxes. They’re a business. 99.9% sell clothes, bling, mats, props, you name it. And at a pretty hefty mark-up I’m guessing.
Boo hoo. Pay your taxes like everyone else.
Aho
Simply,
I don’t live in NYC, but if this happens there, other states will certainly take note and copy. Studios already pay sales tax on the items you mention, but taxing services is an entirely different matter. “Hefty mark-ups” are in proportion to the quantity of goods sold – if you’re used to discount stores or large retailers, who buy in volume and have a corporate structure, then anything sold in a smaller venue is going to seem expensive. I know very few small studio owners who go into business with big profits as a primary motivation, and even fewer who actually make a profit beyond income from their own classes. Small businesses of every kind are going under due to the pressures of the current economy & large, big box and chain stores. I prefer to pay a little more and support the small, independent businesses in my community whenever possible.
Hi Nancy!
I realized after I made the post(s) I was probably confusing tax on goods with tax on services.
Guess overall my feeling is many small businesses are struggling and would prefer not to pay sales tax on whatever they’re providing. Honestly, I don’t understand why dance studios are exempt either. I’m not clear on the issue, obviously.
But just because a business is small and low-profit doesn’t exempt them from what is required. I don’t enjoy paying taxes myself! But I have yet to see a sound reason why a yoga studio should not have to cough it up, like so many others.
Sure, if you’re going to a spiritual center to practice and maybe give a donation by choice, (not a “suggested donation,” but a from the heart one) that’s a different thing.
Overall, I honestly don’t get it. Because I’d bet a majority of people who attend yoga classes are doing it for fitness. That’s just the way it is these days. And if fitness centers have to pay, then so should the yoga studio.
Simply,
I agree with you. I work as a government lawyer. From my unique perspective as a bureaucrat who practices yoga, I say that only yoga enterprises that are registered non-profits should be exempt from paying the tax. I doubt very many “studios” are registered as non-profits, since that would require them to re-invest all their “profits” back into their corporations.
While I sympathize with small businesses that are struggling to make a profit, it’s totally different to be a business that is organized to turn a profit (but not making one) than a non-profit organization that cannot legally make a profit. Why should for-profit yoga studios that are not turning a profit be treated any differently than other for-profit businesses operating at a loss or just breaking even?
I”m really unclear on this article — they seem to be talking about several things. . . such as a tax on services (meaning tax on each person paying for the service of taking a class), and then of course there would be the tax on income to the business (profits), and then of course sales tax (which most studios already pay), and it appears that they are also looking at a different permitting structure for these businesses as well.
When I was in PA and running a small studio, the only thing we didn’t pay was a service tax. I didn’t sell product, so there was no sales tax either. I also had to pay for my permitting processes — just like any other small business. At the end of the year, I filed a tax return — outlining income and expenses to the business, wherein I was breaking even (after one year, not bad!).
Here, I do the same. I pay taxes for my business bi-monthly. At the end of the year, we file our tax forms, and get a refund or have to pay — or as in this year, paid the right amount each pay period, and therefore got neither a refund nor had to pay any more.
But, our formation is a little bit different. Our teachers effectively “rent” the space from us, and we charge them GST on that rental (normal here). And so, that is part of the tax we then pay on to the government. When teachers invoice us for the amount that they earn per class (this is so that we have a simple payment structure for students), they charge us GST if they are GST registered. To be GST registered, you have to make over a certain amount of money each year. Since most of the teachers/practitioners don’t (either by choice or being new or what have you), then they do not ‘charge’ us GST, nor do they have to pay GST bi-monthly. Some, though, still run their yoga teaching like businesses, and at the end of the year, get a nice refund for the taxes that they paid that they didn’t need to.
It’s not as if yoga studios are not paying any tax anywhere.
I can understand that they don’t want to be classified as a certain kind of business, which would change the regulations around how their business is run, and perhaps increase the costs that would make it difficult for smaller studios to continue. That being said, I think that most people would adjust, assuming they were willing to go through the process.
And if they have a good relationship with a bank or, like me, maintain a savings account for the business to manage such things, they should be able to find a way cover their costs of making this transition, and adjust their businesses accordingly.
What stores don’t pay taxes? Any studio with a store, at the very least, needs to pony up. What’s wrong with these people? They don’t have a leg to stand on as far as I can see.
This is a fundamental issue about the industry that William Broad raised so well in his book The Science of Yoga.
American yoga needs to stop claiming that it is somehow “spiritually exempt” from social and fiscal responsibility, guidelines for vocational training and “licensure,” and the need to protect consumers.
Time to GROW UP Yogis. I know it’s hard to do! You’d rather remain in this infantile, narcissistic state in which you get to “be all you can be” without any sense of collective responsibility for yourselves or anyone else.
So if you want the mainstream to join you – maybe it’s time you joined “it.” If it keeps you from joining yoga cults, bonking your gurus, and turning yourselves into porn stars, we would all be very relieved.
I have to laugh about all this yoga push-back. The arguments most often used – anti-government regulation and spiritual freedom – pretty much align you with the Tea Party and the Christian Right.
Isn’t more regulation and fair taxation for the social good? If not, why are so many of you voting for Obama?
If I saw you all at Romney headquarters and demonstrating against Obamacare, we might be able to take this protest seriously as an expression of principle.
But isn’t really just naked self-interest and an infantile desire to make your own rules up to suit yourselves?
And haven’t we had enough of this already from American yoga?
Excellent, Stewart.
I taught for two years for a douchebag who didnt pay his teachers except for trade of classes. That trade actually constitutes compensation but this Lebanese blanket trader didnt see it that way, and he never once paid payroll or any other taxes. Thats a pretty sweet deal in a mostly cash business for the quasi spiritual set but it does not apply in the real world . Time to Pony up Boys and Girl.
Oh, I pay NYS and NYC sales taxes on the most spiritual of yoga DVDs … even if ordered through the internet …
Well, I’ll be buying fewer of those …
Many studios are charging $20, $22, and upwards per class. I don’t see them as a charity or a religion. They’re for-profit (big profit) all the way.
And they should be putting their energy into helping their teachers out of Independent Contractor hell. They should put their braintrust into something worthy, instead of holding benefit events (and likely expecting the teachers to donate their time) so they can continue to avoid taxation. And for PR to promote their cause.
Why not spend some time figuring out a way to provide some type of health insurance for their teachers as well? Yes, it’s a bit of a challenge, a little complex, so not worth the effort as it doesn’t go in the profit column??? What a bunch of shysters!
Mr. Lawrence, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Nice ad hominem attack there “The Principal.”
Because the Mr. Lawrence’s post involved careful reasoning and tight logical analysis (rolls eyes).
But to get to your post. You are wrong. You need to look up the definition of ad hominem. Calling an argument “dumb” is not an ad hominem because it does not attack the person as a means to discredit the argument. You have just flunked rhetoric (or whatever college class led you to believe that you knew what ad hominem meant). If you want to say I didn’t say anything to actually dispute the rambling, incoherent rant (which somehow jumped the straight from local, New York political taxes to Obama, Romney, the Tea Party, the Christian Right, and Obamacare without even batting an eye), then say so. But what you did is just an attempt to sound educated and impartial, but failing miserably. If I wanted to use an ad hominem, I would have said “Mr. Lawrence carries a picture of Bikram in his wallet, so his opinion does not matter” or something similar.
You also need to rent Billy Madison.
A picture of Bikram Choudry in One’s wallet isnt even Ad Hominem. Since all of the wallets in the ”Bikram “line of fine Men’s apparel come with a picture of the Guru (rolls Eyes).
These wallets also come with a very unique feature. For every $20 dollar bill one puts in it, only $15 dollars comes out…Word! Pay your taxes yogis
Okay Principal, then tell us what was so wrong about what Mr. Lawrence said. I for one thought it was the most coherent argument on this article. What exactly is your problem?
Ironic that North America has been of great help in turning yoga into a business ,another commodity , rather than a method for transformation , and then some of these same folk , start to moan when asked to behave like a business . The Anusara farago has shown how many people talk of livelyhood and business and career , rather than anything to do with transformation and service . You cant have it both ways . Not sure how sales tax works is it on profit or turnover ? Presumably if the studio makes a small profit they wont pay so much tax and the ones who pull in large moolah pay most tax , is this how it works ?
It seems so counter yoga to be jealous and petty when it comes to taxes. Be happy for for those that have more than you. That person driving a nicer car than you and living in a nice house might be giving to charities you know nothing about. Who are you to judge? That person running the yoga studio employs other yogis. If it was so easy you would be doing it, too. They probably put in more hours of blood, sweat and tears than you are ready to do yourself, so do not be jealous or judgmental.
Oh FGS. Every business, small businesses especially, put in blood, sweat and tears and employ people. And … oh yeah… they pay taxes!
The attitude of yoga studio owners is just disgusting. I’d like to see one good reason why they shouldn’t be under the same tax requirements as any other business, large or small.
AND, you think the small, struggling independent bookstore isn’t also providing something worthy to the public. They’re about to go into extinction. And how about small galleries, the tiny ma and pa corner grocery store, independently owned?
Everyone is struggling, to make ends meet, and pay their taxes. What makes a yoga studio so speshul? Pray tell.
Jealous? Hilarious.
Here is my free legal advice: Every business, non-profit, venture, etc. should regularly consult with an attorney and tax professional about their on-going tax liability.
Sure seems to be a lot of anger in the YD comments lately. Can’t we all just get along?
I can understand the need to collect taxes on a service offered to the public for profit. It is unfair though to ask for back taxes when the change in reglation was so recent. It will also kill a few of those geese they hope keep laying golden eggs.
Scott, I don’t mean to sound angry. Really I’m just flabbergasted, mostly. I was going to comment on the last article YD posted on this issue but I got distracted. And it’s been on my mind since then. So all my bottled-up feelings have come out today, I guess!
As far as the back taxes owed, I suspect they all have been aware of this for quite some time and decided to duck the issue until it became more of an inevitability. Any business person should prepare and make sure they know what their obligations are… or very likely could be.
The “get along” in the yoga community is largely a facade. Everything’s great, as long as you adhere to the approved line: collectivism = good; Democrat = good; regulation and taxes = good; vegetarianism = good; socialism/communism = good; liberal sexuality = good; etc. If you veer off the reservation, then the much-vaunted tolerance is shown to largely be a farce. You will be shunned, ridiculed, and probably accused of being a Nazi. The irony is that Hitler was a vegan, Socialist, who was an ardent believer in animal rights, so he would have fit right in with most of the yoga community’s belief structure. But don’t try to tell them that because the facts never get in the way.
The connection is even more direct than that. Hitler’s top aide, Heinrich Himmler, was enamored with yoga, which had swept into Berlin and other German cities in the 1920s. In fact, the Nazis generally were ardent proponents of “body worship” – and not just fitness and exercise. They saw in the idolization of the human, physical form – its transformation into a living “icon” – an analogue for instilling an uncritical, even “sensual” devotion to the Fuhrer.
Sound familiar? Replace Fuhrer with Guru. Rinse and repeat.
This has all been analyzed at some length by the brilliant social critic and essayist Susan Sontag, who deconstructed the “fascist aesthetic” contained in the work of Leni Riefenstahl, the official Nazi filmmaker who tried to capture the 1936 German Olympics. Riefenstahl used extreme close-ups and slow motion to fetishize the bodies of the competitors, especially the Germans, as they performed in various events. No words, no commentary, just a never-ending visual tribute to Aryan “perfection.”
When I first saw the Briony Equinox video, I surmised that Riefenstahl might have risen from the dead, still desperate to reclaim yoga for the Fuhrer! How fitting that yoga may soon become an Olympic sport.
“Mein Fuhrer, I can bend!”
Hilarious. Well played.
@When you talk of yoga community to what do you refer ? because i dont get a sense of community or anyone telling me how to think or beleive , rather the opposite .
Hitler was not a vegan , nor vegetarian although he had an intestinal problem that led to flatulence so his doctors said he should avoid meat from time to time , this seems to be the perceived position . , there is plenty of instances of Hitlers liking of certain dishes which contained meat , bavarian sausage for instance ! Hitler had german shepherds does not necessarilly make him an animal lover although he may have been but doubt there is much evidence, but it is a good story given how much disregard he had for sentient beings . But as you say dont let the facts get in the way .
sorry above is @ yoga is a closed community
Waiving the payment of back taxes required by law would set a dangerous precedent that could be applied in other situations. Also, waiving back taxes really is not fair because all businesses should be treated the same.
This is a fascinating discussion! I find it very interesting that while the article didn’t mention any yoga people in favor of the taxes, the comments were almost entirely in support of studios paying taxes like any other business. I’m a studio owner in Vermont. Honestly, if my state legislators started asking me to kick in to the coffers (beyond sales tax for yoga props sold in my studio) I can’t imagine organizing a protest!! I am too busy teaching yoga and my limited protest energy will go to making sure the 1% pay their taxes. So, if they wanted to tax me, I would just pay up.
[Yoga] is the study of the life-force, and the mastery of life.
In California, tangible goods are taxable, as are services that result in creation of tangible goods (I’m having a hard time coming up with any way that taking a yoga class would result in creation of tangible goods, unless it was a REALLY advanced class). That does not mean that studio owners do not pay taxes. There is, as I’ve already mentioned, sales tax on any props, books, jewelry, clothes etc. sold in the studio. There is also use tax on every item purchased that is used (all props, and any furnishings, etc. bought without paying sales tax) or put into use if not sold. There is a county tax on all of the above, on a yearly depreciated basis. In addition, there is a business tax on the gross receipts, and regular state and federal taxes on everything. (There is also the expense of an accountant to keep all of this straight)! What’s at issue is charging sales tax on non-tangible items. Do doctors and therapists pay sales tax on the services they provide in NYC? I don’t think people who went into a business that was not deemed taxable at the time they began should have to pay back taxes. If you take yoga classes, do you want to go back and figure out how much you owe in back taxes? Do you buy books or other goods online and neglect to pay the use tax on those items? All businesses are in NO way treated the same. Now, if the powers that be want to give yoga studios the kind of corporate assistance offered to big oil, maybe we can negotiate!
Heya Nancy! your studio is near where my aunt lives! I’ll have to send her over!
Hi Jennifer! I’d love to meet your aunt – I promise not to charge sales tax (hasn’t come to that in CA yet)!
The BKS Iyengar Institute in Pune, India charges annual-tuition-fees that amount to ONLY $0.30 per hour of yoga-instruction.
There, you have it. You heard right ! The World’s foremost Yoga Institute charges only $0.30 (that’s right, 30 US cents) per hour of quality-yoga-instruction. That tuition-fee covers everything. No additional fees, period. The Iyengar-Yoga-Institute provides all the mats, props, etc. Just BYOBody.
The Instructors are top-notch, the attention is as individualized as one wants.
That’s about as close to a ‘not-for-profit’ as it could ever get.
The Iyengar Yoga Institute in Pune, India is indeed upholding the best traditions of the ancient Hindu Guru-Shishya-Ashram education systems, wherein knowledge was imparted for free to all sincere students.
Meanwhile, here in the US, we have mediocre Yoga Institute-wanna-bees charging students $50 per hour of instruction ! And we have to bring our own props to class ! What a crock this Yoga, Inc. is turning out to be !
$.30 is about 16 rupees. The recent per capita income estimate for India is 50,000 rupees per year, or about $1,000.00. The U.S. per capita income is $41,663 per year, so a comparable price based on the U.S. economy would be about $12.00, which is an average price in many studios. For visitors with an exchange rate advantage, .30 is an amazing price (excluding the transportation cost to get to India). For Indians, not so much. You’re fortunate to have studied there; not everyone can make that journey, and the waiting list is quite long.
Leslie Kaminoff says “fuck you” to all you anonymous bloggers and commenters and you are all a bunch of “motherfuckers”. Skip to the 9 minute mark for the fun.
Google: Meet “The Yoga Agent” – Leslie Kaminoff & Ava Taylor
Responding to Jennifer upthread… I like what you are doing! All it takes is a little thought and organization to comply with the tax-paying necessity. Voila.
And I’m wondering about the real differential between a yoga studio and a fitness center in reality. Many yoga teachers discuss health in their classes, as much or if not more, than “spirit.”
You hear about ayurveda, toxins, de-toxing, diet, fitness, etc. A fitness center may discuss these things with a different twist, alternate language (maybe) but in the end, it’s just semantics.
I’ve never been to a fitness center, because yoga has always satisfied my needs. But what about the small, struggling fitness center??? They are popping up everywhere these days. The small boutique-y ones, that are not part of chains.
Why do they have to pay a tax on services if yoga studios don’t.
From what I hear, it’s not all that different. They are concerned for their student’s health and well-being and that’s what they teach. They just use different language and props.
It’s obvious I don’t have much respect for the way the yoga business is going about the task of teaching spirituality these days. Not at all.
The fitness world seems fairly straightforward. If they start throwing in flowery words with their instruction, change their dress and toss out a couple OMs while they’re demonstrating the bench press can they get tax breaks too?
OM.
Thanks! 🙂
After reading the article again (with less distraction), there are two things that come to my mind:
1. a bit about designations; and
2. a bit about back-taxes.
With regard to 1, I have no problem with how states want to designate certain businesses, but I would argue that I do actually think that the designation around health/fitness isn’t accurate. I think movement is closer.
In general, ballet studios are designed to teach the techniques of ballet for personal edification and artistic expression. health and fitness is also a benefit of the study and practice of ballet.
Likewise, yoga studios are designed (or at least mine is) to teach the techniques of yoga for personal edification and development. Health and fitness is also a benefit of yoga asana practice.
My own studio is not designed for people to become physically fit. Yes, many of them do gain a measure of health and fitness, but my primary goal is for them to experience yoga for personal development. That may include goals of health and fitness, but I focus mostly on a person finding liberation and expression.
Thus, technically speaking, I wouldn’t be a health/fitness studio in any of the senses that they mention above (weight loss studios, health spas, turkish saunas).
But this is largely about perception, isn’t it?
To the second issue, in my mind, studios shouldn’t have to pay back taxes for a new designation. The ruling went through one a certain date, and — in my mind and in fairness — it should be effective as of that date AND the people affected should have been given notice of it’s effective date and it’s impact on them.
I’m assuming the government did that, rather than after-the-fact in audit, though, adn thereby studios are liable because ignorance of the law (or regulation) is no excuse.
As a person above noted, going with a good tax attorney or accountant is imperative. Our accountants are really great — we trust them implicitly, and they do keep up with our various legal designations. We are a pretty straight-forward rental business, so not a whole lot of regulations apply to us beyond basic lease law and the taxes relevant. So, very straight forward.
“My studio is not a gym….it’s a boutique!”
“My studio is not a gym … it’s a playground … for adults”
Make that a “private, corporate-run playground – like Gymboree, etc.” that if you are a prosperous, generous-to-yourself self-parent, you send you (and your inner child) to …
New York yoga studios…couldn’t
happen to a nicer group of folks.
(Ironic) LOLOLOLOL …
it’s just (smirk) Karma ;-]
There are so many 200 hour yoga degree mills maybe it’s good if a few go under. Time to thin the herd.
“Degree”? Like in college?
I’ve got college degrees enough for six people (and not the online kind) … and would not go for this …
Now, in India, they give actual college degrees in yoga …
They actually do in a lot of places. Here in NZ, for example, you can go to a poly-technical school and get a certificate in yoga (two years of study) or a diploma in yoga (four years of study). It doesn’t seem to give a crap about Yoga Alliance, though. LOL