Self Employed Locum GP Tax questions

neil5061

Hello all,
Trying to get an understanding of my tax situation. Just a bit of background. I am working as a Full time locum GP with no "regular" sessions. I currently use my home address as my base of work.  

I am working as a sole trader (not a Ltd company)
I was planning on claiming back the following and was wondering what you guys thought of the legality.

1. Professional fees and training
2. Equipment for work, i.e stethoscope, headset, BP machine etc
3. Mobile phone contract. Planning on getting an iphone 12 (in my name) exclusively for work. Will keep my current phone contract and phone in my name for personal use.
4. Laptop
5. New car lease.  Will claim back 100% of lease costs. No personal miles and will be able to provide a mileage log to back this up. 
6. GAP insurance and Alloy damage insurance- would this be business related as the vehicle will only be used for going to practices and doing home visits.
7. Car insurance, road tax, petrol, servicing- to claim 100% of this
8. Meals?- would I be able to claim these. Sometimes I am working odd shifts and having to buy food/deliveroo. 
9.  Ubers as some of my shifts have been in places I cant park. 
10. Parking fees
11. Would I be able to justify buying airpods to help me when I am using my mobile phone (as opposed to the headset connected to the wired phone) 
At what proportion of expenses would HMRC start getting suspicious i.e 10% 20% or is it random. 

Thanks for the advice !

Jeremy535897

You might like to read the attached link, particularly the last bit:
https://www.bma.org.uk/pay-and-contracts/tax/tax-relief/tax-relief-for-locum-doctors

If you are treated as self employed, I think the short answers are (business proportion only):

1. Claim
2. Claim (capital items are eligible for capital allowances)
3. Claim
4. Claim (probably capital allowances)
5. Claim, but limited for cars with over 110g/km emissions
6. Claim
7. Claim
8. If you are away from home overnight and can claim the travel costs, yes (if it's reasonable)
9. Claim
10. Claim
11. Claim

HMRC expect certain gross profit percentages in businesses like grocers, pubs etc. I am not aware that they would have a net profit percentage in mind for a locum.

See https://www.gov.uk/expenses-if-youre-self-employed

neil5061

Thanks for the response. In regards the the car leasing. The CO2 emissions are around 181. It is fully leased so no option to purchase. I was under the impression the whole thing can be written off? How would I work out how much I can claim back?

Jeremy535897

See https://www.letstalkfleet.co.uk/tax-guides/lease-rental-restriction

neil5061

Thanks thats really helpful. So for me it would be 85%. Whats not clear is whether I could then use the car for personal use for 15% of it. Or is it 85% of the business element? Its quite unhelpful that HMRC have nothing on their website regarding this. 

Jeremy535897

85% of the business element.

neil5061

Great thats perfect thank. And if I buy nice headphones or earphones I can put them in capital allowance presumably?

Grumpy_chap

The OP should engage an Accountant as there is a lot of benefit to be had and that will yield specific advice and more than pay-back I would imagine.

I am not sure that it will be convincing to the HMRC that a car at >180 g/kg CO2 is truly for only business use with no private element, unless the geography of the OP's area demands a Defender.  For cars, it is always worth considering the costs through the business and compare with claiming mileage (45p / 25p), though if the OP can get the 100% business use through, thus avoiding any BIK, then the mileage rate option may well not be favourable.

For professional fees and training, I don't think it is possible to claim "entry" training, but on-going registration and CPD is usually permitted.

Finally, it seems possible that a locum-GP would achieve annual turn-over that requires VAT-registration.

neil5061

Its only a C300 coupe which is quite a popular car. The private element is the "enjoyment" of driving it which cant be taxed! Given the lease and insurance cost the mileage is much more expensive as I will be doing approximately 5k miles a year vs expenses of 9k (6k for lease, 3 for insurance and fuel). 
I would expect annual turnover over 80k. 
According to our pseudo union/association we wouldn't need to but the guidance is vague. 
https:// www.nasgp.org.uk/faq/do-i-need-to-register-for-vat-as-a-gp-locum/

neil5061

https:// www.gov.uk/guidance/health-professionals-pharmaceutical-products-and-vat-notice-70157#section2
Does this not say we are excempt?

[Deleted User]

Grumpy_chap said:

The OP should engage an Accountant as there is a lot of benefit to be had and that will yield specific advice and more than pay-back I would imagine.

I am not sure that it will be convincing to the HMRC that a car at >180 g/kg CO2 is truly for only business use with no private element, unless the geography of the OP's area demands a Defender.  For cars, it is always worth considering the costs through the business and compare with claiming mileage (45p / 25p), though if the OP can get the 100% business use through, thus avoiding any BIK, then the mileage rate option may well not be favourable.

For professional fees and training, I don't think it is possible to claim "entry" training, but on-going registration and CPD is usually permitted.

Finally, it seems possible that a locum-GP would achieve annual turn-over that requires VAT-registration.

No VAT - exempt where treating patients directly.