Our 5-minute read – Tax Tips – for UK doctors and dentists will help you save tax, get organised with your tax affairs and make sure you meet important deadlines with ease.
This article does not constitute advice. Professional advice should be taken prior to acting on any part of it. The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate tax advice.
As professionals in the dental and medical field, it’s pretty standard to attend conferences, training seminars, and other avenues of continued professional development (CPD). These fields are always evolving so you need to stay up to date on any new advances in practice and technology. But many question whether or not these training and CPD ventures can be claimed. The answer may surprise you.
HMRC says about claiming tax relief on training and continued professional development: “To be claimed, expenditure will be wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the existing trade”.
But what, exactly, does this mean?
Essentially, it boils down to the fact that to claim any expenditure, the course you take or the conference you attend must be limited to knowledge that you have already previously studied or clinical treatments you currently perform. Nothing can be new knowledge, unfortunately. But how you define that term could make all the difference.
When can you claim?
Obviously, anything that does not relates to your current field is out of the question. You cannot enrol in a creative writing course or attend a conference for sports commentating to embark on a new career and expect to claim tax relief on it.
What you can do, however, is expand your knowledge of any subject that you’ve previously studied and claim relief. Say, for example, you want to specialise in a new area of medicine or dentistry. As long as the topic was covered in your initial training, and even if it might alter the daily function of your job, it is technically not considered new knowledge and you would be free to claim. Consider it enhanced knowledge – not new.
Unsure what you can claim for? Speak to the experts
Even though you may need to employ some finesse when decoding HMRC mandates and regulations, it’s well worth the effort when you find out what you can claim tax relief on.
If you’re unsure if any of your current endeavours can be claimed, get in touch with us today. We specialise in taking into account your tax affairs – whether they’re complex or highly specific – as part of the financial services and solutions we provide to the dental and medical community.
We can also put you in contact with specialist accountants and tax advisers that can discuss your business tax return.