For specialists working in the healthcare industry, keeping your accounts carries many specific challenges which can mean either that you need to do it yourself (taking up another large slice of your time, especially as you work to keep up to date with changing legislation) or you need an accountant who is familiar with the needs of healthcare professionals.
So what do you need to know? What should you watch for?
Tax Opportunities
Any professional can claim certain expenses against their taxes, including payments made to an occupational pension scheme, certain travel expenses, and also any professional fees or subscriptions.
It won’t surprise any doctor reading this to know that the list of these fees and subscriptions for doctors is probably longer than most other organisations.
Consider:
- Your GMC fee
- Any CCT fees associated with your GMC fee
- Fees to the Royal College
- Your MDU or MPS fees
- BMA fees (if you are a member)
HMRC maintains an online list of approved organisations known as List 3. You’ll find it here – but be aware that it can be a pain to navigate. The General Medical Council, as an example, is under Medical Council, General – so check M, not G.
As you can imagine, these lists are much easier to navigate with wide experience!
It’s just as important to remember that certain expenses cannot be claimed. While the usual test is that employment expenses are those incurred “wholly, exclusively, and necessarily in the performance of… duties”, training costs that you pay for yourself are not eligible expenses. This sort of edge case can and has caught many professionals out.
Factors Affecting Locums
As locum doctors you may encounter other challenges. One of the biggest: check your tax codes.
We recently covered what these tax codes mean, but the key thing for locums is that you will switch locations from time to time, which in turn means switching jobs. HMRC’s systems will sometimes flag these as you working two jobs, which can mean an emergency tax code is applied.
Locums can also encounter this issue when you actually do have multiple employers. It’s always possible that one or more employer may not notice this issue arising, which makes it very important that you do too!
A similar factor can arise for NICs (National Insurance Contributions). The short version is that if you have two jobs with two different employers, each one has a separate threshold for NICs, which can mean you don’t meet the primary threshold to pay any (although you may choose to do so voluntarily).
The long version, of course, will depend on your specific circumstances. If you believe you may be an edge case, make sure you’re handling it right – talk to a specialist who can confirm the situation for you.
As always, if you want to be able to place your faith in experts to handle this for you, just get in touch – we’ll be happy to help.
