Self Assessment Tax Returns for Doctors
Written and reviewed by the Medical Accountants editorial team. Last reviewed .
Most doctors' returns are not difficult so much as scattered. Employment pages for the NHS post, partnership pages for a practice share, self-employment pages for locum or private work, pension pages where an annual allowance charge arises, and occasionally a property page as well. Each one is straightforward. Missing one is not.
We prepare the return from everything at once, tell you the figure and the payments on account before Christmas rather than in the last week of January, and file it.
What Goes on a Doctor's Return
Employment income and any expenses claimed against it, including professional subscriptions where relief is available. Partnership share where there is one. Self-employment for locum and private work. Pension savings where an annual allowance charge arises or a Scheme Pays election is being made. Anything else you have, because HMRC sees the whole picture whether or not the return does.
Where relief is restricted rather than refused, we claim what is actually allowable. The British Medical Association subscription, for example, carries relief on 85% of the annual amount rather than all of it.
Payments on Account and January
The first year a doctor has significant untaxed income is the year the bill doubles. The balancing payment for the year just ended falls due on 31 January, and the first payment on account for the next year falls due on the same day, each instalment being half the previous year's tax. The second follows on 31 July.
There are two ways out of them and both are worth knowing: no payments on account are due if the tax owed last year was under £1,000, or if more than 80% of last year's tax was already collected at source. A salaried GP with modest locum income often falls inside the second of those and does not realise it.
Returns That Are Already Late
A late return costs £100 immediately, then £10 a day up to £900 once it is three months late, then percentage penalties at six and twelve months. Those are separate from the interest and penalties on the tax itself, and they accrue whether or not any tax is owed.
If you are already past a deadline, the fastest way to stop the meter is to file, not to wait until the money is available. Send us what you have and we will tell you what is missing rather than asking for a complete set before starting.
Fees for a Tax Return
A fixed fee quoted before the work starts, set by how many sources of income there are rather than by how much they produced. A return with one employment and one small locum trade is not priced like a partner with a private list.
The fee includes filing, the payments on account calculation, and the explanation of what to pay and when. It does not include chasing you for records in January, because we ask in the autumn.