Doctor Tax Rebate: What You Can Claim and How

A doctor tax rebate is tax relief on work costs you pay that your employer does not repay, like GMC fees, approved subscriptions and some mileage. HMRC gives the relief at your tax rate. Employees outside Self Assessment can claim £2,500 or less per tax year on form P87, and larger claims need a tax return.

Two resident (junior) doctors can drive the same road to the same hospital, and HMRC won’t necessarily treat their mileage the same way. The difference comes from how each training contract is set up, not from the distance.

This guide is for doctors paid through PAYE, in hospitals or GP practices, with notes on what changes if you’re a partner or a self-employed locum. It doesn’t cover doctors working through a limited company.

Four things in particular shape your claim: whether you’re employed, how your contract treats training, how much your employer pays back, and where in the UK you live. Figures are for the 2026/27 tax year unless another year is named.

How you’re paid shapes your doctor tax rebate

If you’re paid through PAYE by an NHS trust, a private hospital or a GP practice, HMRC’s employee rules apply. For salaried roles, see tax relief rules for salaried doctors.

Tax relief for doctors on employee expenses follows GOV.UK’s general conditions:

• The cost came out of your own pocket, for something your job requires you to buy.
• You use it for work and nothing else.
• Your employer hasn’t repaid all of it, and any part they did repay comes off your claim.
• You paid income tax in the tax year the claim covers, since relief is capped at the tax you paid.

A GP tax rebate works differently if you’re a partner. GOV.UK counts an individual in a business partnership as self-employed, so allowable costs are deducted when working out the business’s taxable profit.

For more on how partnerships are taxed, see the partnership tax guide.

Locum doctor tax relief follows the same split. A locum working as a sole trader is self-employed, while a locum paid through PAYE uses the employee rules in this guide.

Tax deductible expenses for doctors include GMC fees

Two kinds of fee can go into a tax rebate for doctors: a fee you can’t practise without, and an annual subscription to an HMRC-approved body (known as List 3) that’s relevant to your work.

Life memberships don’t count. Neither do fees your employer paid, or subscriptions to bodies HMRC hasn’t approved.

Your GMC annual fee sits in the first group. HMRC’s manual lists the fee for keeping your name on the medical register among those that may be deductible, and GMC registration is a legal requirement for working as a doctor in the UK.

From 1 April 2026 the GMC’s annual fee for doctors registered with a licence to practise is £481, or £184 with the GMC’s fixed-term discount.

You claim what you actually paid, so a discounted fee means a smaller claim. There’s more in the GMC tax rebate FAQ.

Subscriptions to the BMA, a medical defence organisation or your royal college qualify only if the body appears on List 3, so check the list before you claim. For the wider rules on fees, see the guide to tax relief on professional fees.

According to GOV.UK, your professional body can tell you the amount of tax you can get back on its fee.

Indemnity cover has its own pages on MDU tax relief and Medical Protection Society tax relief.

Equipment, uniforms and stethoscopes

GOV.UK limits equipment claims to items your job requires, with no significant private use.

Items expected to last under two years, like uniforms and tools, are claimed a different way, while substantial equipment can get relief on its full cost through the annual investment allowance.

For a stethoscope, the route depends on which category it falls into. If it counts as a small tool, the relief GOV.UK describes is for repairing or replacing it.

If your employer provides one and you’d rather buy a different model, HMRC’s rules don’t allow a claim.

Keep the receipt, because HMRC asks for evidence of what you spent. For tools more generally, see tax relief on tools bought for work.

Doctors aren’t named in the health and care rows of HMRC’s flat rate expenses list. A flat rate is meant for the upkeep of uniforms and protective clothing, such as washing, repair and replacement, and PPE doesn’t qualify at all.

If your employer offers free laundering and you don’t take it up, you can’t claim for washing your uniform yourself.

HMRC’s online checker shows whether your job has a flat rate and how much it is, and the uniform tax refund guide has more on uniforms.

Exam fees count only on a training contract

Exam fees are the part of a junior doctor tax rebate that turns on your contract wording.

HMRC’s starting point is that continuing professional education isn’t deductible, even when it’s compulsory and missing it could cost you your registration or your job.

The exception comes from the 2010 Court of Appeal case HMRC v Banerjee. HMRC’s manual accepts relief where you’re employed on a training contract, training is an intrinsic contractual duty, and any personal benefit is incidental.

HMRC expects you to show, from your contract and related paperwork, that:

• Training forms an intrinsic part of your contractual duties.
• Your other duties are the practical side of the same training process.
• The external training is a mandatory part of the job.
• Not finishing the training and qualifying would stop you continuing with your employer in the post you’d otherwise move into.

HMRC adds that a mandatory course isn’t enough on its own. For more on training costs, see tax relief for doctors’ training fees.

The line is narrow. In CRC v Decadt, relief for exam costs was denied to a hospital doctor even though his job required a national training number and mandatory courses, because he wasn’t employed on a training contract.

That case matters if you’re a locally employed doctor sitting college exams without a training contract.

Section EIM32540 of HMRC’s manual names medical training courses that pass these tests.

For surgeons, the Royal College of Surgeons says core and specialty trainees who pay for MRCS or FRCS themselves can claim, and HMRC wants proof of payment, like a receipt, sent with the claim.

College-specific detail sits in the pages on MRCS exam fees and Royal College of Physicians tax relief.

Doctor mileage tax relief depends on your contract

Your commute doesn’t qualify for relief, with one exception: a trip to a temporary workplace.

Journeys between two workplaces in the same job are different. HMRC’s manual treats them as travel in the performance of your duties, so you can claim them if your employer doesn’t cover the cost.

That doesn’t stretch to separate jobs. HMRC’s manual cites Parikh v Sleeman, where a doctor employed separately by three hospitals got no relief for journeys between them.

Being called in while on call doesn’t change the treatment of a trip between home and your permanent workplace either.

Rotations: one contract or several?

For doctors on rotational training, see HMRC’s guidance on rotational contracts (EIM61017).

If each placement is a separate 12-month job with a different NHS trust, each hospital counts as a permanent workplace for that job, and travel between home and the hospital can’t be claimed. The wider training programme doesn’t change that.

If the whole programme runs under a single contract, each hospital is a temporary workplace, because you won’t work at any of them for more than 24 months. Home-to-hospital travel is then deductible.

Your employment contract, not your rota, tells you which of the two applies.

The 24-month test for other postings

For other placements, HMRC looks at expectation. A workplace counts as permanent where you’ve spent, or expect to spend, at least 40% of your working time there during a period that has run, or is expected to run, for more than 24 months.

The test is ‘more than’ 24 months, so a posting expected to last exactly 24 months can still be temporary. What counts is the reasonable expectation at each stage, so a posting that later looks set to pass 24 months is treated as permanent only from that point.

HMRC also treats a move between nearby sites as one workplace if it makes no substantial difference to your journey.

The 2026/27 rate and your records

HMRC’s approved mileage rates for 2026/27 are:

• Cars and vans get 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles, up from 45p before 6 April 2026.
• Beyond 10,000 business miles, cars and vans get 25p a mile.
• Motorcycles get 24p a mile and bicycles get 20p a mile.

The rate covers the cost of running the vehicle, so fuel, vehicle tax, MOTs and repairs can’t be claimed on top. Claims for years before 2026/27 use the 45p rate.

HMRC wants mileage logs showing the reason for every journey and the postcode where each one started and ended, with a separate log for each job.

For mileage rules beyond rotations, see the mileage allowance relief guide.

How NHS mileage payments net out

According to NHS Employers, the NHS mileage rates for petrol and diesel vehicles in England apply to Agenda for Change staff and to doctors on the 2016 terms and conditions for doctors in training. Local agreements can differ.

Since 1 June 2026 the NHS rates have been 59p a mile up to a threshold, then 36p, and that threshold went up from 3,500 to 4,500 miles on 1 July 2026.

HMRC works this out over the whole tax year. It sets the total your employer paid for one type of vehicle against the approved amount for all your miles in it, and the result is either a taxable excess or relief, never both for the same vehicle type in the same year.

Say you drove 6,000 business miles in 2026/27 and, to keep the arithmetic short, your trust paid 59p for the first 4,500 and 36p after that all year. HMRC’s approved amount is £3,300, your trust paid £3,195, and £105 is left to claim.

At 2,000 miles, the same rates pay £1,180 against an approved amount of £1,100, so there’s nothing to claim and £80 is taxable.

The NHS rates changed during 2026/27, and the NHS mileage year resets on 1 July until April 2027. Add up what your trust actually paid you across the tax year rather than applying one rate.

What £1,186 of expenses is worth

Here’s one resident doctor’s 2026/27, with an illustrative exam fee and the simplified mileage from the NHS example above:

• The doctor paid the GMC’s £481 annual fee.
• A college exam, paid personally under a training contract, cost £600.
• Mileage left to claim came to £105.
• Total expenses were £1,186, which is under the £2,500 limit for a postal P87.

A doctor tax rebate gives back tax at your own rate, not the whole cost, so the saving on £1,186 depends on your band:

• At the 20% basic rate, the saving is £237.20.
• At the 40% higher rate, the saving is £474.40.
• At the 45% additional rate, the saving is £533.70.
• In Scotland, it’s £249.06 at the 21% intermediate rate, £498.12 at the 42% higher rate and £569.28 at the 48% top rate.

Outside Scotland, with the standard Personal Allowance, the 40% rate applies to taxable income from £50,271 and the 45% rate above £125,140. In Scotland, the 42% rate starts at £43,663 and the 48% rate applies above £125,140.

How to claim tax back as a doctor

The route for an NHS doctor tax rebate depends on whether you already file a tax return and how much you’re claiming:

• Self Assessment filers must put the claim on their return, whatever its size.
• Expenses above £2,500 for a tax year also need a Self Assessment return.
• Expenses of £2,500 or less can go on form P87, sent by post.

A claim of exactly £2,500 counts as £2,500 or less, so it can still go on a P87.

To claim by post with form P87, download the form and open it in the latest free Adobe Reader. You can fill it in on screen and print it, or print it first and fill it in, then post it with your evidence to the address on the form.

GOV.UK asks for evidence with a postal claim for each type of expense, apart from flat rate expenses. Fee receipts need to show the amount, and hotel or meal receipts need the date and the venue’s name.

The guide to evidence to send with a P87 has more detail.

GOV.UK also has an online service that checks whether you can claim and how to claim for each type of expense.

For more on the form, see what a P87 form is.

Claims can reach back four tax years, plus the tax year you’re in. A postal claim has to be made within four years of the end of the tax year it covers.

A claim for the current year is usually handled through a tax code change. For earlier years, a doctor tax refund arrives either as a tax code adjustment or as a repayment.

If someone else claims for you and wants the repayment paid to them, the P87’s nomination section has to be completed first. Paid agents who want repayments sent to them follow separate GOV.UK guidance.

Before you claim your doctor tax rebate

A doctor tax rebate starts with the costs you paid yourself and nobody paid back: your GMC fee, relevant List 3 subscriptions, exam fees if your training contract meets HMRC’s conditions, and mileage your trust didn’t fully cover.

Check your contract before counting rotation mileage, because its structure decides whether home-to-hospital journeys qualify. Add up the year’s totals, including what your trust paid you for mileage.

Keep receipts and mileage logs, then choose your route: Self Assessment if you already file or your expenses pass £2,500, and a postal P87 if they don’t.

Relief comes at your own tax rate, so expect a share of what you spent rather than the full amount. Other healthcare roles are covered in the healthcare worker tax rebate guide.

Key Takeaways

• A doctor tax rebate covers work costs you paid yourself and your employer didn’t repay, with relief given at your own tax rate.
• Your GMC fee can qualify, and other subscriptions count only if the body is on HMRC’s List 3.
• Exam fees need, among other conditions, a training contract that makes training an intrinsic part of your duties.
• Rotation mileage depends on whether your programme runs under one contract or several, and cars get 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in 2026/27.
• HMRC compares the NHS mileage payments you receive in a tax year with its approved amount, so overpayments on early miles reduce what you can claim later.
• Claims of £2,500 or less for a tax year can go on a postal P87 with any evidence required, while larger claims, and anyone already sending a Self Assessment return, go through Self Assessment.