Q: What are the tax-allowable mileage and travel expenses for locum GPs?

Locum GP claims will depend on the pattern of their work. If they are ‘itinerant workers’ – so that they work at different places from day-to-day with no discernible pattern, then it should be possible to argue that the main place of work is home – the base from which the business is run. This should make all journeys to surgeries allowable. If however there is a pattern claims will be restricted. For example: Dr L is a freelance locum. He has a number of regular jobs. He covers at surgery A on Mondays, does 2 days a week at surgery B and the 4th and 5th days are totally variable. It is likely that surgery A and surgery B become ‘workplaces’ so that home to each of those premises will be a personal journey. The 4th and 5th days should fall within the itinerant rules so that home to surgery will be deductible. Sometimes the pattern will not be obvious in advance. A short spell of locum work may develop into something more regular ( at this stage there is a risk that the locum is no longer freelance in respect of that placement and may need to become salaried, but that is beyond the scope of this article ).

Q: What are the tax-allowable mileage and travel expenses for locum GPs?

Locum GP claims will depend on the pattern of their work. If they are ‘itinerant workers’ – so that they work at different places from day-to-day with no discernible pattern, then it should be possible to argue that the main place of work is home – the base from which the business is run. This should make all journeys to surgeries allowable. If however there is a pattern claims will be restricted. For example: Dr L is a freelance locum. He has a number of regular jobs. He covers at surgery A on Mondays, does 2 days a week at surgery B and the 4th and 5th days are totally variable. It is likely that surgery A and surgery B become ‘workplaces’ so that home to each of those premises will be a personal journey. The 4th and 5th days should fall within the itinerant rules so that home to surgery will be deductible. Sometimes the pattern will not be obvious in advance. A short spell of locum work may develop into something more regular ( at this stage there is a risk that the locum is no longer freelance in respect of that placement and may need to become salaried, but that is beyond the scope of this article ).

Question 1

How do I get on the performers list?

Accepted Answer

As a GP working, or planning to work, in the UK, you need to go through a three-stage process.

Step 1 - join the GMC's GP register

If you are applying to work as a GP (general practitioner or family physician) in the UK, as well as being licensed by the GMC, you'll also need to be on the GMC's GP Register.
About the GMC GP register

Step 2 - join one of the four UK Performers Lists

If you you're not already working, state your “intent to work” on your performers list application, outlining roughly how many sessions a week you plan to work from a particular date.

[well]

Scotland

From 1 June 2016 there has been a Scotland-wide, standardised application process. GPs still apply to the relevant local health board (HB) but entry to one HB list also includes you on all other HB lists, so you can work across Scotland.

[/well]

Step 3 - join the NHS appraisal process

Your Area Team will assign you to a 'designated body', who'll oversee your appraisal and subsequent revalidation.

Question 2

How can I speed up the performers list application process?

Accepted Answer

After nine painful weeks of going through the process of joining the Performer's list, NASGP member Mark de Kretser gives a helpful rundown of how to get through the application process. Mark provides some hints and tips, many of which we hope will avoid you having to discover the same many weeks into your application.

View FAQ

Question 3

Employment status – long-term | HMRC, NHS pension and employee status

Accepted Answer

This FAQ is from the perspective of being a GP locum in the same practice for a 'long time', rather than about choosing working as a GP locum as part of your career portfolio.

It explains it from four different perspectives - NHS pension scheme, HMRC tax perspective, employment law and 'mission creep', and there's even an audio podcast too.

View FAQ

Question 4

Employment status – long-term | HMRC, NHS pension and employee status

Accepted Answer

This FAQ is from the perspective of being a GP locum in the same practice for a 'long time', rather than about choosing working as a GP locum as part of your career portfolio.

It explains it from four different perspectives - NHS pension scheme, HMRC tax perspective, employment law and 'mission creep', and there's even an audio podcast too.

View FAQ

Question 5

What can I do if a practice or agency are refusing to pay me?

Accepted Answer

Write to them explaining what they owe you - give dates and times and a further copy of your Terms & Conditions
- Keep a copy of all such correspondence
- Send such correspondence as Recorded Delivery
- Try to avoid emails when pursuing unpaid bills - too easy to ignore.
Speak to the practice manager and keep a record of your conversation.
- If you want to make an audio recording of the conversation, many mobile phones offer this facility - you must explain to the person that you are recording the conversation
Speak to your LMC, who will be able to talk to the practice on your behalf.
If you have no joy with the practice manager, talk to one of the partners.
- Speak to someone likely to see your side of the argument
If you're still not getting anywhere, start thinking about making a small claim through a County Court.

Question 6

What mileage records do I need to keep as a GP locum?

Accepted Answer

Recently we have seen examples of HMRC asking to see locum mileage logs and refusing claims without them. So please try to keep a mileage log of all practice related journeys. It is much easier to take out what turns out not to be deductible, than to try to recreate information that wasn’t retained in the first place. A mileage log can be a notebook kept in the car; a spreadsheet or a phone app that calculates journeys that you can annotate.

What if you have not kept a log?

For home to GP surgeries, it is easy enough to ‘google’ journeys to find the mileage. Visits are much harder if you haven’t retained records. Some surgeries’ computer systems can produce a printout of visits by doctor, from which you can then work out the mileage. This might work for salaried doctors, but the practices are likely to be less enthusiastic hunting out the information for irregular locums. Don’t forget to include other travel in the course of work – such as for training courses. If they are not local, that can be a noticeable amount. Salaried doctors will not be able to claim it themselves; they will need to try to get reimbursement from the practice. If the pattern of work has not changed then a sample period might be sufficient but this is only likely to work for salaried doctors’ visits – and if HMRC want to do it by the book, it still may not be enough. Locum work is unlikely to ever be settled enough for a sample period of mileage log to be representative – so doctors in that position need to get into the habit of keeping a regular log. Self-employed doctors may usually claim a mileage rate similar to salaried GPs, but if their turnover exceeds £81k (for 2014-15) they should claim a proportion of total car running costs.

Question 7

What are the tax-allowable mileage and travel expenses for locum GPs?

Accepted Answer

Locum GP claims will depend on the pattern of their work. If they are ‘itinerant workers’ – so that they work at different places from day-to-day with no discernible pattern, then it should be possible to argue that the main place of work is home – the base from which the business is run. This should make all journeys to surgeries allowable. If however there is a pattern claims will be restricted. For example:

Dr L is a freelance locum. He has a number of regular jobs. He covers at surgery A on Mondays, does 2 days a week at surgery B and the 4th and 5th days are totally variable. It is likely that surgery A and surgery B become ‘workplaces’ so that home to each of those premises will be a personal journey. The 4th and 5th days should fall within the itinerant rules so that home to surgery will be deductible.

Sometimes the pattern will not be obvious in advance. A short spell of locum work may develop into something more regular (at this stage there is a risk that the locum is no longer freelance in respect of that placement and may need to become salaried, but that is beyond the scope of this article).

Question 8

What mileage records do I need to keep as a GP locum?

Accepted Answer

Recently we have seen examples of HMRC asking to see locum mileage logs and refusing claims without them. So please try to keep a mileage log of all practice related journeys. It is much easier to take out what turns out not to be deductible, than to try to recreate information that wasn’t retained in the first place. A mileage log can be a notebook kept in the car; a spreadsheet or a phone app that calculates journeys that you can annotate.

What if you have not kept a log?

For home to GP surgeries, it is easy enough to ‘google’ journeys to find the mileage. Visits are much harder if you haven’t retained records. Some surgeries’ computer systems can produce a printout of visits by doctor, from which you can then work out the mileage. This might work for salaried doctors, but the practices are likely to be less enthusiastic hunting out the information for irregular locums. Don’t forget to include other travel in the course of work – such as for training courses. If they are not local, that can be a noticeable amount. Salaried doctors will not be able to claim it themselves; they will need to try to get reimbursement from the practice. If the pattern of work has not changed then a sample period might be sufficient but this is only likely to work for salaried doctors’ visits – and if HMRC want to do it by the book, it still may not be enough. Locum work is unlikely to ever be settled enough for a sample period of mileage log to be representative – so doctors in that position need to get into the habit of keeping a regular log. Self-employed doctors may usually claim a mileage rate similar to salaried GPs, but if their turnover exceeds £81k (for 2014-15) they should claim a proportion of total car running costs.

Question 9

What are my tax-allowable mileage expenses as a salaried GP

Accepted Answer

Salaried GPs may claim for journeys undertaken wholly in the performance of their duties. Where the practice reimburses a doctor for visits (pretty rare!), then salaried GP mileage reimbursements up to 45p per mile (assuming less than 10k miles pa) are tax free. Payments in excess of that (sometimes seen in payments by hospital trusts) will be treated as taxable benefits and should be shown on form P11d at the end of the year, and must be recorded on the employment pages of the tax return.

If the practice reimburses less than 45p per mile, the difference can be claimed as an expense of employment. If there is no reimbursement at all, the then full 45p per mile can be claimed as an expense of employment. Where miles exceed 10k p.a. then the reimbursement rate drops to 25p.

Join the conversation on salaried GP mileage in our GP-only Facebook Group

The above rates relate to car travel; motorcycles can be reimbursed/claimed at 24p; cycles at 20p.

Allowable journeys for salaried doctors would include patient visits, meetings (necessary ones as part of the employment), and travel between different sites, but see the caveat below.

Home to work journeys are not allowable.

Additional mileage may be claimed in restricted circumstances such as:

Dr D is employed by multi-site practice A to work at surgery X. If Dr D is asked to work at surgery Y for a limited time (perhaps to cover a maternity leave), then temporary travel from home to another place of work for an intended period of less than 2 years will be treated as allowable.

Note on the other hand that if Dr E was employed on a temporary basis for the maternity leave mentioned above, home to work mileage would not be allowed because surgery Y would be his main (and indeed only) workplace.

Travel between sites cannot be claimed in the following circumstance:

Dr D is still employed by practice A at surgery X. He lives close to surgery Y and pops in each day on his way to work to pick up post. This does not make the journey between the two surgeries a business journey.
Dr D is still employed by practice A. He works Mondays and Tuesday at surgery X and Wednesday and Thursday at surgery Y. These are two separate places of employment and travel between them or from home to work for either of them is not deductible.

Question 10

Can I charge practices for mileage and travel time?

Accepted Answer

Salaried GPs

As an employee, probably not; it's not usual practise in any employment to charge for mileage to and from work. However, there may be an allowance in your contract for use of your car for visits, or if your practice requires you to travel to certain meetings to represent the practice.

Locum GPs

If you're a locum GP then you can charge for mileage to and from your place of work and for visits too if you want to - some locums do, some don't. When you charge for mileage, it's not just the fuel you're charging for - think of the tax, insurance, oil, servicing bills, wear-and-tear, tyres and the time taken to physically get there etc. What you [successfully] charge is entirely up to your negotiations with your employing practice. A decision on whether or not to charge depends on how much it's actually costing you vs both the hassle of working it all out plus the 'perceived pettiness' by the practices that may ultimately lead them to booking someone else.

Locum GP claims will depend on the pattern of their work. If they are ‘itinerant workers’ – so that they work at different places from day-to-day with no discernible pattern, then it should be possible to argue that the main place of work is home – the base from which the business is run. This should make all journeys to surgeries allowable. If however there is a pattern claims will be restricted. For example:

Dr L is a freelance locum. He has a number of regular jobs. He covers at surgery A on Mondays, does 2 days a week at surgery B and the 4th and 5th days are totally variable. It is likely that surgery A and surgery B become ‘workplaces’ so that home to each of those premises will be a personal journey. The 4th and 5th days should fall within the itinerant rules so that home to surgery will be deductible.

Sometimes the pattern will not be obvious in advance. A short spell of locum work may develop into something more regular (at this stage there is a risk that the locum is no longer freelance in respect of that placement and may need to become salaried, but that is beyond the scope of this article).

Question 12

What are my tax-allowable mileage expenses as a salaried GP

Accepted Answer

Salaried GPs may claim for journeys undertaken wholly in the performance of their duties. Where the practice reimburses a doctor for visits (pretty rare!), then salaried GP mileage reimbursements up to 45p per mile (assuming less than 10k miles pa) are tax free. Payments in excess of that (sometimes seen in payments by hospital trusts) will be treated as taxable benefits and should be shown on form P11d at the end of the year, and must be recorded on the employment pages of the tax return.

If the practice reimburses less than 45p per mile, the difference can be claimed as an expense of employment. If there is no reimbursement at all, the then full 45p per mile can be claimed as an expense of employment. Where miles exceed 10k p.a. then the reimbursement rate drops to 25p.

Join the conversation on salaried GP mileage in our GP-only Facebook Group

The above rates relate to car travel; motorcycles can be reimbursed/claimed at 24p; cycles at 20p.

Allowable journeys for salaried doctors would include patient visits, meetings (necessary ones as part of the employment), and travel between different sites, but see the caveat below.

Home to work journeys are not allowable.

Additional mileage may be claimed in restricted circumstances such as:

Dr D is employed by multi-site practice A to work at surgery X. If Dr D is asked to work at surgery Y for a limited time (perhaps to cover a maternity leave), then temporary travel from home to another place of work for an intended period of less than 2 years will be treated as allowable.

Note on the other hand that if Dr E was employed on a temporary basis for the maternity leave mentioned above, home to work mileage would not be allowed because surgery Y would be his main (and indeed only) workplace.

Travel between sites cannot be claimed in the following circumstance:

Dr D is still employed by practice A at surgery X. He lives close to surgery Y and pops in each day on his way to work to pick up post. This does not make the journey between the two surgeries a business journey.
Dr D is still employed by practice A. He works Mondays and Tuesday at surgery X and Wednesday and Thursday at surgery Y. These are two separate places of employment and travel between them or from home to work for either of them is not deductible.

Question 13

Can GP locums pension their travel costs under the NHS pension scheme?

Accepted Answer

NASGP member BD has raised this very important question, since NASGP's LocumDeck excludes travel costs from the Locum A pension calculation. The NHSBSA, in its 2017 factsheet for GP locums, states:

Q. Are travel expenses, i.e. motor mileage allowance pensionable?

A. No. Deduct 10% of your gross pay first which accounts for expenses.

So is it just a plain fat 'no'? Does one include one's charges for travel as 'gross pay', or include it? And is NASGP correct in not including expenses i.e. travel costs/mileage in our automated Locum A forms within LocumDeck? Our advice from Honey Barrett accountants (4th May 2017), and confirmed by their pension experts from the Association of Independent Specialist Medical Accountants, has confirmed NASGP's position by pinning down the actual legislation:

1995 regulations, schedule 2, regulation R1, paragraph 6(3):

"In the case of a locum practitioner, "pensionable earnings" means all fees and other payments made to the locum practitioner in respect of the provision of locum services (but excluding payments made to cover expenses or for overtime), less such expenses as are deductible in accordance with guidance laid down by the Secretary of State."

Honey Barrett conclude "...[pensionable earnings] excludes expenses, so just the locum fee x 90% (which is the allowance for expenses as stipulated by the Secretary of State)."

Question 14

Model locum Terms and Conditions template

Accepted Answer

[alert_box style="info" close="yes"] NB you can now set your T&Cs online in NASGP's LocumDeck. [/alert_box]

If you're doing any sort of locum work as part of your portfolio career, you'll definitely need your own personalised Terms and Conditions to help protect both you and the practice you're working for. NASGP's model T&Cs has been specifically developed for us by a specialist employment law firm, and allows you to not only fully adopt all its recommendations, but also to add any necessary clauses, and tailor it to suit your personal needs. LocumDeck's T&Cs generator allows you to

Set your own cancellation sliding scale from 0 to 100% of your booked fee for 0 to 28 days in advance.
Include your 14.38% employer's pension contributions
Legal employment status
Tax status, IR35 etc
Duties (on-call, triage etc)
Private fees (HGV medical etc)
Cremation fees
Payment terms (14 days? 28 days?)
Plus much more.

As an NASGP member, go to your T&Cs generator, choose your settings and then save. You'll then be given a unique link "View my TCs" which will automatically be added to your automated invoices, confirmation emails and session request emails, or you can paste the link into your own website. As an added bonus, you can update your T&Cs as often as you like, with each change being saved in an archive accessible by your practices for extra confidence.

Working as a freelance GP locum

Thriving as a GP locum

The paperwork

Performers list

How do I get on the performers list?

Step 1 - join the GMC's GP register

Step 2 - join one of the four UK Performers Lists

Wales

England

Northern Ireland

Scotland

Step 3 - join the NHS appraisal process

Load More

How can I speed up the performers list application process?

View FAQ

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Read our blog

Tax, national insurance and pension status

Employment status – long-term | HMRC, NHS pension and employee status

View FAQ

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How to get known as a locum GP

How to operate

When to take holidays

Local Information to get before you start

Essential contacts

Other information that you may find useful

Setting your rates

How to book work

Working long-term in one practice

Employment status – long-term | HMRC, NHS pension and employee status

View FAQ

Load More

How to charge for your work

What can I do if a practice or agency are refusing to pay me?

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Free with NASGP membership

See also

Registering as self-employed

Setting up a limited company for locum work for GPs

Tax implications of partnership vs salaried GP

NASGP

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