Accountants for GP partners
Joining a GP partnership, or finishing your first full year as one, is when the tax bill becomes real. Salary and PAYE stop. You take drawings against an anticipated profit share, and that share is taxed on you personally through self assessment whether or not you actually drew it. Your NHS pension moves from the Type 2 self-assessment for salaried GPs to the Type 1 Annual Certificate of Pensionable Profits, which you sign. A buy-in buys a share of net assets and, where the practice owns its building, a share of the premises. The partnership accounts and the PCSE reconciliation sit on GP practice accountants.
Note: Statutory figures for the tax year shown. Your own position is what decides the answer.
What we hear
What we hear from GP partners
The questions and concerns that come up most in the first conversation.
Drawings are not your income, and the gap is where the tax bill hides
Partner income is a profit share, not a salary. Drawings are monthly payments against a profit the practice has not finished earning, trued up when the accounts are signed. You are taxed on your allocated share, including what stays in the practice as working capital or builds your capital account. The mechanics are in how drawings differ from profit.
Your first self assessment as a partner carries more than one year
The January after your first full partnership year can ask for the balancing payment plus the first payment on account for the next, each interim payment being half the prior year's liability where that bill topped £1,000 and less than 80% was collected at source. Class 4 National Insurance follows at 6% on profits from £12,570 to £50,270 and 2% beyond. Class 2 has not been a required payment since 6 April 2024.
The Type 1 certificate is yours to sign and it runs a year behind
As a GP provider you move onto the Type 1 Annual Certificate of Pensionable Profits, filed through PCSE, covering your NHS-derived profit including locum or solo income. Filing runs a year behind, each 28 February, so the 2025/26 pension year falls due on 28 February 2027. Contributions are tiered on pensionable pay, reaching 12.5% at £67,669 and above for 2026/27, bands are re-set every 1 April in line with the previous September's CPI.
What a buy-in buys, and why none of it is NHS goodwill
The sale of NHS general practice goodwill has been prohibited since 1 April 2004, currently under the 2019 Prohibition on the Sale of Goodwill Regulations, so the dental playbook does not translate. A buy-in pays for tangible assets, working capital and any owned premises. Premises often sit in a separate property partnership, supported by notional rent assessed at current market rent by the District Valuer. Financing is in buying into a partnership.
Leaving is a capital account settlement, not a sale
What comes back on retirement is your capital account: your share of net assets as the accounts state them, less anything owed, on the terms the deed sets. A premises share is a separate disposal and may produce a gain, with the annual exempt amount at £3,000 for 2026/27. Weigh one risk before you sign anything: being the last partner left holding the whole building liability.
How it works
How we work with GP partners
- 01
Partnership pages and your personal return prepared together
Your allocated profit share, any private or locum income, employment income from any salaried months and your pension contributions go onto one return. A specialist reconciles that share to the signed accounts, so the figure you are taxed on is what the practice allocated rather than a rounded drawings total.
- 02
A drawings and tax reserve schedule reviewed each year
A monthly reserve figure comes off the expected profit share, the payments on account due and your pension tier, and is revisited once the accounts are final. The drawings planner gives you a first pass on your own numbers beforehand.
- 03
The Type 1 certificate checked before you sign it
The pensionable profit figure is read against the accounts and the practice's Estimate of Pensionable Profits, locum and solo income confirmed as included, and the tier applied in-year tested. Tiers can be revised in-year, so the rate first applied is not always the final one. Where an annual allowance charge looks likely, the position is modelled ahead of the Scheme Pays election deadline.
- 04
Buy-in and exit numbers prepared before the deed is signed
What you are buying is split into net assets, working capital and any premises share, and the borrowing behind it is reviewed for interest relief. On the way out, a specialist prepares the capital account settlement and any premises disposal, including the CGT position, in retiring from a partnership.
Free calculators
Run the numbers before you send anything
Free to use, on 2026/27 rates. We ask once whether a specialist should check your figure, and skipping that still shows it.
- GP Partner Drawings PlannerSet a monthly drawings and tax reserve figure against your expected profit share and payments on account.
Free first call, then a fixed fee in writing
Talk to an accountant who works with GP partners
A call with one of our medical accountants, covering your drawings and tax reserve, your Type 1 certificate, and any buy-in or exit numbers. Scope and fees are agreed with you, and enquiring commits you to nothing.
- 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. If our specialists think your position is already right, they will tell you so.
Book your free first call
FAQ