Are you claiming all your expenses?

In most GP practices, businesses expenses are collated by the practice manager for the annual partnership accounts. However, personal expenses that individual GP partners have paid directly can still be claimed through the completion of the partnership tax return. Personal expenses cannot be claimed on a partner’s individual tax return.

Is it worth the bother?

OK, let's be honest, it can be a chore to find all your receipts and put them into sensible order, but there are some very good reasons for doing so.

Firstly, claiming your personal expenses reduces your taxable income so you'll get both income tax relief and pay lower National Insurance Contributions if you claim them. The tax relief you get will obviously depend on the level of your income but, for example, if your income falls in the £100,000 to £125,000 band across which the personal tax allowance is clawed back, you could get relief at 62% of the amount claimed.

Part time GPs with children may find that their child benefit entitlement is reduced, so claiming your expense may help to preserve your entitlement or reduce the annual Child Benefit High Income Charge you pay.

Similarly, your pensionable income will be reduced for NHS pension purposes so you will save on contributions and, if you are still making student loan repayments, these may be reduced as well.

What can you claim as a personal business expense?

The basic rules for business expenses require that they are incurred 'wholly and exclusively' in the course of your business, but HMRC does agree that some 'dual purpose' costs can also be claimed where a realistic apportionment of the total can be made.

Motor expenses are a good example: claims must be restricted to business mileage, so overall costs (vehicle insurance, repairs and servicing, fuel, hire charges, vehicle licence fees and breakdown cover) for year will need to be apportioned. But don't forget that travelling to and from home to your normal place of work will not count as business mileage. Parking costs for business journeys can also be claimed, but not fines. And if you have travelled by train for a qualifying business journey, you can claim your ticket but not for the coffee you bought for the trip.

If you do practice or private work at home, you can claim a proportion of your home heating, electricity, Council Tax, mortgage interest or rent, internet and telephone costs based on actual usage (accounting for hours of use and the proportion of total space used).

Similarly, if you purchased fixtures to support working from home (a desk, chair, monitor etc) a usage proportion of this expense can be allowable.

Professional subscriptions, training course fees and relevant publications, can all be qualifying expenses, although the cost of training courses that help you expand into new private practice areas may not, for example, if you do not already have private practice work in that area. Personal professional indemnity insurance for non-NHS work will be a qualifying expense.

Why start sorting now?

The 2024/25 tax year has just ended so there is no better time to sort through your personal expense receipts – before they get buried by this tax year's papers. And if you put a good filing system in place now for the current year, you won't have to dig through a bag of random receipts this time next year!

For help and advice on claiming business expenses or any other tax issue, please contact our team.