Doctor Expenses Tax Relief Calculator
Doctors can claim tax relief on a range of professional expenses, from GMC registration fees and medical indemnity to CPD courses, royal college subscriptions and business mileage. This calculator adds up your allowable costs, applies the correct 2026/27 AMAP mileage rate (55p per mile for the first 10,000 miles), and shows the pounds of relief at your marginal income tax rate.
Ask a medical accountant about your figureDoctor Expenses Tax Relief Calculator
Doctors can claim tax relief on a range of professional expenses, from GMC registration fees and medical indemnity to CPD courses, royal college subscriptions and business mileage. This calculator adds up your allowable costs, applies the correct 2026/27 AMAP mileage rate (55p per mile for the first 10,000 miles), and shows the pounds of relief at your marginal income tax rate.
Your annual GMC retention fee. Take it from your own GMC receipt or gmc-uk.org: this site does not state a figure, because the GMC fee regulations could not be read at source (house_positions section 8, UNVERIFIED).
Enter your BMA subscription separately below: it has its own List 3 restriction.
HMRC's List 3 restricts tax relief on the BMA subscription to 85% of the amount paid, so the calculator claims 85% of whatever you enter here.
Wholly and exclusively for your professional role
Mileage not reimbursed by your employer. AMAP: 55p/mile (first 10,000), then 25p/mile.
Salaried doctors claim via a P87 form (or self-assessment if also filing a return). Partners and locums claim via the self-assessment return as a deduction against trading profit, which also reduces Class 4 NI. AMAP applies to car/van mileage not reimbursed by your employer at the approved rate. Cycle mileage has a separate AMAP rate (not included).
Estimate your tax as a salaried or self-employed doctor
A calculator gives the shape of the answer. NHS pensions, the annual allowance taper and private-practice incorporation are unforgiving in the detail. Tell us your situation and one of our medical accountants who works with doctors will confirm your exact figure and the sensible next step. Enquiring commits you to nothing.
Get the full GP and doctor tax and accounts model and guide
What expenses can doctors claim tax relief on?
HMRC allows doctors to deduct costs that are wholly and exclusively incurred for professional purposes. The main categories are: GMC registration and annual retention fees, medical defence organisation subscriptions (MDU, MPS, MDDUS), royal college membership, BMA membership (relief on which List 3 restricts to 85% of the subscription), CPD courses, conferences and study days directly related to your clinical practice, medical journals and textbooks, and business mileage where you are not reimbursed.
Salaried doctors and hospital consultants can claim relief on employee expenses by submitting a P87 to HMRC, or by including them in a self-assessment return. GP partners and locums deduct these costs directly from trading profit on the self-assessment return, which reduces both income tax and Class 4 National Insurance.
A common myth is that doctors have an HMRC flat-rate expense (often quoted as £185). They do not. HMRC's agreed flat-rate table (EIM32712) has no entry for doctors: the £185 figure belongs to ambulance staff on active service, and nurses and several allied roles get £125. Doctors instead claim their actual professional costs. GMC fees, defence body subscriptions and royal college fees are all on HMRC's approved List 3 of professional bodies, so they are deductible on the actual amount paid. The BMA is the exception worth knowing: its List 3 entry restricts tax relief to 85% of the annual subscription, so a doctor claiming the full amount is overclaiming.
Business mileage relief uses the HMRC Approved Mileage Allowance Payment (AMAP) rates. From 6 April 2026 the car and van rate for the first 10,000 business miles rises to 55p per mile, then drops to 25p per mile above that. Salaried GPs doing home visits or travelling between sites can claim for miles not reimbursed by their employer at the approved rate.
Worked example 1 (higher-rate GP): indemnity £4,000, royal college £500, CPD £1,200, 3,000 business miles at 55p per mile (£1,650). Total allowable on those four: £7,350, and tax relief at 40% is £2,940. Add your own GMC retention fee to both figures.
Worked example 2 (basic-rate salaried GP, low mileage): indemnity £2,500, BMA £250 (of which 85%, or £212.50, is allowable), CPD £600, no itemised mileage. Total allowable on those three: £3,312.50, and tax relief at 20% is £662.50. If mileage to home visits adds 2,000 miles (£1,100 AMAP), the allowable rises to £4,412.50 and relief to £882.50. Add your own GMC retention fee to whichever applies.
Frequently asked questions
Can a salaried GP claim mileage for visiting patients at home?
- Yes, if you use your own car and your employer does not reimburse you at the full AMAP rate. You can claim the difference between the AMAP rate (55p per mile for the first 10,000 miles from 6 April 2026) and any amount your employer does pay. Travel from home to your regular place of work is ordinary commuting and is not allowable.
Is there an HMRC flat-rate expense for doctors?
- No. HMRC operates a flat-rate job expense scheme for many professions, but doctors are not in the agreed table (EIM32712). Nurses, midwives and several allied health roles have a £125 flat rate, and ambulance staff on active service have £185, but there is no doctors' rate. This is why the £185 figure sometimes quoted for doctors is wrong. Doctors claim their actual costs instead: GMC fees, defence body subscriptions and royal college fees are all deductible because those bodies are on HMRC's approved List 3. Check the List 3 entry for each body, because some carry a restriction: the BMA's entry limits relief to 85% of the annual subscription.
Is CPD tax deductible?
- Yes, provided the course or conference is directly and wholly related to your existing professional role. CPD required for revalidation, clinical skills directly used in your current post, and mandatory training all qualify. Courses aimed at career change, initial qualification, or interests outside your current role generally do not qualify for a deduction.
Do GMC fees qualify for tax relief?
- Yes. GMC registration and annual retention fees are a professional subscription allowable for tax relief, because GMC registration is a legal requirement to practise as a doctor in the UK. We do not quote the fee here: take the figure from your own GMC receipt or from gmc-uk.org. Reduced rates apply on lower incomes, so the amount is not the same for every doctor.
Can GP partners claim the same expenses?
- Yes, with one key difference: partners and locums deduct expenses from their self-employed trading profit on the self-assessment return, rather than via a P87. This means the relief also reduces Class 4 National Insurance (6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above), making the total saving slightly higher for self-employed doctors than for salaried employees at the same income.
What is the 60% effective tax zone and does it affect my relief calculation?
- When your adjusted net income is between £100,000 and £125,140, HMRC tapers away your personal allowance at a rate of £1 for every £2 of income over £100,000. This creates an effective marginal rate of approximately 60% in that zone. This calculator lets you select 'higher rate (40%)' as your band, but if your income sits in this zone you are effectively paying 60% on marginal pounds. In that case the relief on your expenses is also worth closer to 60p per pound, not 40p. Speak to your accountant if you are in this position, as the actual benefit will be higher than what this calculator shows at 40%.
Free consultation
Need help interpreting your result?
These calculators give a simplified estimate on standard rates. Your actual position depends on your NHS pension record, carry-forward entitlement, IR35 status and income from all sources. Send your position and one of our medical accountants will read the full picture.
- Medical work onlyNHS pension, practice accounts and private practice
- Read by a medical accountantYour enquiry goes to our accountants who work with doctors
- One position, not threePractice, pension and personal return read together
No obligation and no hard sell. If our specialists think your position is already right, they will tell you so.