Accountants for doctors approaching retirement
Within a few years of drawing your NHS pension the decision stops being a date and becomes a set of trade-offs. Partial retirement lets you take 20% to 100% of your accrued benefits in up to two events and carry on working, provided your pensionable pay or commitment falls by at least 10% for the first 12 months. Retiring fully and returning later is a different route with different paperwork. Anything drawn before your normal pension age carries a permanent actuarial reduction. Around that sit the annual allowance charges your highest-earning years produce, the capital account if you are leaving a partnership, and the private work you intend to keep. The decisions move each other, so your retirement date is what sequences them.
Note: Statutory figures for the tax year shown. Your own position is what decides the answer.
What we hear
What we hear from doctors approaching retirement
The questions and concerns that come up most in the first conversation.
Which route fits: partial retirement or retire and return?
Partial retirement has been open to all sections since 1 October 2023. You draw between 20% and 100% of what you have accrued, in up to two events, keep working, and keep accruing in the 2015 section, so long as your pensionable pay or commitment drops by at least 10% for the first year. Retiring and returning means taking your benefits, breaking NHS employment for at least 24 hours, then re-engaging on new terms. The partial retirement guide sets out the mechanics.
Taking benefits early costs you permanently
Minimum pension age is 55 today and rises to 57 for benefits taken on or after 6 April 2028, under Finance Act 2022 s.10. Access at 55 after that date needs an unqualified right under the scheme rules on 4 November 2021. Normal pension age is 60 for 1995 service, 65 for 2008 service and State Pension Age for 2015 service. Anything drawn earlier carries an actuarial reduction on NHSBSA factors, and it does not reverse later.
Your biggest annual allowance charges arrive last
Growth is measured as the input amount, the capitalised increase in your benefits, not as contributions paid, so a pay uplift or a jump in partnership profits lands as a large figure in one year. The allowance is £60,000 for 2026/27, and it tapers by £1 for each £2 of adjusted income over £260,000 once threshold income also clears £200,000, and the floor is £10,000. Scheme Pays can settle a charge, but that election closes once all your benefits are taken.
What actually changes hands when you leave a practice
NHS goodwill has been unsellable since 1 April 2004, now under the Primary Medical Services (Prohibition on the Sale of Goodwill) Regulations 2019. A retiring GP partner is paid out on tangible assets, working capital, any owned premises share and the capital account, never on a goodwill multiple. Premises usually sit in a separate property partnership, and the last partner standing can hold the whole liability. The capital account and cessation position is where the tax falls.
How it works
How we work with doctors approaching retirement
- 01
Side by side modelling of the retirement routes
Each route is costed on your own figures: full retirement, partial retirement at several drawdown percentages, and retire and return at reduced sessions. The model shows income year by year, the accrual you keep or forgo, and the lump sum against the £268,275 lump sum allowance.
- 02
Annual allowance position for your final working years
Input amounts are gathered for the open years, carry forward from the previous three tax years is calculated, and the taper tested on both threshold and adjusted income. Where a charge arises, the self-assessment entry is prepared and mandatory Scheme Pays checked for availability. The annual allowance calculator gives you a first read.
- 03
Scheme Pays elections filed inside the right window
A 2026/27 charge must be elected by 31 July 2028 under Finance Act 2004 s.237BA. Where NHSBSA issues a revised savings statement on or after 2 May, the window runs to the earlier of three months from it or six years from the end of the tax year. It closes early once you are entitled to all your benefits, under s.237B(6), so deadlines are tracked against your retirement date.
- 04
Cessation and capital account work when you leave a partnership
Your final year is reconciled: closing capital account, any overlap or transition profits still open, the premises share and its capital gains treatment, and balancing adjustments on equipment. Type 1 certification runs a year in arrears, so your final certificate falls due the 28 February after that pension year ends. The deed is read against the accounts before the payout is agreed.
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.
- NHS Pension Annual Allowance CalculatorWork out your tapered allowance and any charge on your final working years, from your NHSBSA pension savings statement figures.
Free first call, then a fixed fee in writing
Talk to an accountant about your retirement route
A conversation with one of our medical accountants on partial retirement against retire and return, your annual allowance position in your final working years, and any capital account settlement if you are leaving a partnership. We agree the scope with you first, and nothing here commits you to anything.
- 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.
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