Tax for Doctors and Medical Professionals

Medical professionals working in the NHS or private practice can claim a wide range of tax-deductible expenses to reduce their taxable income. Understanding which expenses qualify and how to claim them correctly can make a significant difference to your tax bill, whether you're a salaried GP, a locum, or work in a partnership.

Who This Applies To

This guidance covers medical professionals including GPs, hospital doctors, consultants, and other practitioners who earn income from medical work. The rules apply whether you work as a sole trader, in a partnership, or earn income that's subject to Self Assessment alongside your salaried employment.

Different claiming methods apply depending on your employment status. If you're self-employed or work through a partnership, you'll claim expenses through your Self Assessment tax return when calculating your business profits. Salaried doctors with employment income can claim certain expenses either through their employer's payroll or directly on their tax return.

Allowable Business Expenses

Medical professionals can deduct expenses that are incurred "wholly and exclusively" for the purposes of their medical practice. This means the expense must be entirely for business purposes, not personal use.

Common allowable expenses include:

Professional fees and subscriptions - You can claim registration fees paid to the General Medical Council (GMC), medical defence organisation subscriptions, and membership fees for professional bodies like the British Medical Association. These are essential requirements for practising medicine and are fully deductible.

Indemnity insurance - Medical indemnity or professional indemnity insurance premiums are allowable expenses. This covers you against claims of professional negligence and is a requirement for most medical work.

Continuing professional development - Costs for courses, conferences, and training required to maintain or update your medical knowledge are deductible. This includes course fees, relevant books and journals, and necessary travel costs to attend the training.

Use of home - If you do administrative work, study, or see patients at home, you can claim a portion of your household expenses including heating, lighting, insurance, and mortgage interest or rent. The amount must reflect the proportion of your home used for business and the time it's used.

Travel expenses - You can claim mileage for business journeys between different work locations, such as travelling between practices, hospitals, or to visit patients. You cannot claim for ordinary commuting between home and a permanent workplace. The approved mileage rates for the 2025/26 tax year are 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles and 25p per mile thereafter.

Equipment and supplies - Medical equipment, instruments, and supplies used in your practice are allowable. This includes stethoscopes, diagnostic equipment, and protective clothing specific to your medical work (standard clothing worn under a white coat isn't allowable).

Telephone and internet - You can claim the business proportion of telephone and internet costs where you use these for work purposes, such as contacting patients or other medical professionals.

Staff costs - If you employ staff such as a receptionist or practice nurse, their wages, national insurance contributions, and pension contributions are allowable expenses.

Partnership Considerations

GPs and other doctors working in partnerships need to understand how partnership expenses work. The partnership itself calculates total income and allowable expenses, then allocates profits to each partner according to the partnership agreement.

Each partner receives a share of the partnership profits based on their profit-sharing ratio. This share is what you report on your personal Self Assessment tax return. Some expenses may be claimed by the partnership as a whole, while others might be personal to you as an individual partner.

Personal expenses that benefit only you - such as your own GMC registration, personal indemnity insurance, or your car expenses - are claimed separately as individual expenses against your share of partnership profits, not as partnership expenses.

Capital Allowances

When you purchase equipment or vehicles for your medical practice, you may be able to claim capital allowances rather than deducting the full cost immediately. Capital allowances spread the cost over several years or allow accelerated deductions.

The Annual Investment Allowance lets you deduct the full cost of qualifying equipment in the year of purchase, up to the annual limit. This can include computers, medical equipment, and furniture for your practice.

Motor vehicles used in your practice may qualify for writing-down allowances, though the rate depends on the vehicle's CO2 emissions. Only the business-use proportion is allowable if you also use the vehicle privately.

How to Claim

Self-employed doctors and partners claim their allowable expenses on the Self Assessment tax return, specifically in the self-employment or partnership pages. You'll need to keep detailed records of all expenses, including receipts, invoices, and mileage logs.

For salaried doctors with employment income who incur expenses not reimbursed by their employer, you can claim tax relief either through your tax code (by contacting HMRC) or on your Self Assessment return if you complete one.

Records should be kept for at least five years after the 31 January submission deadline of the relevant tax year. This means records for the 2025/26 tax year must be kept until at least January 2032.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Don't claim for ordinary commuting between home and your regular workplace - only travel between different work locations qualifies.

Remember that any expense with a personal element must be apportioned, with only the business proportion claimed. If you use your mobile phone for both personal and professional calls, estimate the business percentage and claim only that amount.

Clothing expenses often cause confusion. Ordinary clothing worn under medical clothing isn't allowable, even if you only wear it for work. Only specialist protective clothing or uniforms that couldn't be worn as everyday clothing qualify.

Sources

• Calculating doctors' expenses (Self Assessment helpsheet HS231)

This article provides general guidance based on current HMRC rules. For advice specific to your situation, speak to your accountant.