Accountants for Healthcare in Thatcham

The core work covers tax and compliance, but the detail is shaped by clinical income. For an individual clinician, that typically means preparing a Self Assessment tax return that brings together NHS pay, locum earnings, private fees and any other taxable income, reviewing which expenses can be claimed, and estimating payments on account so there are no surprises. For a practice or clinic, it usually includes annual accounts, bookkeeping, payroll for staff and associates, VAT advice and returns, management information to track profitability, and Corporation Tax work where the practice trades through a limited company. Alongside the compliance, a healthcare accountant should be able to advise on structure, profit extraction, equipment purchases and pension contributions.

Yes. Sole practitioners such as physiotherapists, podiatrists, private consultants, dental hygienists and single-handed pharmacists often need help with the basics done properly — accurate bookkeeping, a correctly prepared tax return, and clarity on what can and cannot be claimed. Larger practices and multi-clinician partnerships need the same rigour applied to more complex circumstances: several partners, a mix of employed and self-employed clinicians, payroll for administrative staff, VAT on mixed supplies, and decisions about whether the current structure still works. The support is scaled to your situation rather than fixed at one level.

It depends on how your income arrives. If all your pay is taxed through PAYE and you have no untaxed income, you may not need to file. However, many people working in healthcare do need to: locum doctors and dentists paid gross, clinicians receiving private patient fees, partners in a practice, company directors, and anyone with rental income from consulting rooms or property. Higher-rate taxpayers with dividend income or savings interest can also fall within the filing requirement. Where a return is required, it must be prepared with all income sources included, and payments on account often follow.

NHS salary is normally taxed through PAYE, with pension contributions and deductions applied at source. Private fees, locum work and self-employed clinical income are usually paid without tax deducted, which means the tax is settled later through Self Assessment or a company return. Because the two arrive differently, the tax due on the private side can feel significant when the bill lands. Recording all income in one place, setting money aside as it is earned, and reviewing the position during the year rather than after it helps to avoid that pressure.

Yes. Most medical care is exempt from VAT, but other services a practice provides may not be. Cosmetic or purely aesthetic treatments, retail sales, some dispensing arrangements and certain room hire can fall outside the exemption. Where a practice makes both exempt and taxable supplies, partial exemption rules may apply and the VAT position needs to be calculated rather than assumed. We review what the practice actually supplies, work out which treatments fall where, and manage registration, returns and record keeping so the figures are supportable.

Commonly claimed items include professional indemnity and medical defence subscriptions, registration and professional body fees, specialist clothing such as scrubs or clinical footwear, clinical equipment and its maintenance, specialist journals and courses relevant to your work, a proportion of home office costs where administrative work is done at home, and business travel between sites. What is allowable depends on your employment status and whether each cost is wholly and exclusively for your work. Mixed personal and professional use — vehicles, phones, a home office — needs a sensible, defensible basis for the proportion claimed.

Yes, payroll is a frequent part of the support we provide to practices. That can include salaried reception and administrative teams, practice nurses, associate clinicians on different pay arrangements, and locums on short engagements. Payroll involves more than paying people: tax codes, National Insurance, pension contributions, statutory payments and year-end reporting all need to be handled accurately and on time. It also raises employment status questions for associates and locums, since the tax treatment differs depending on the arrangement, and getting that wrong creates liabilities for the practice rather than the individual alone.

It starts with a conversation about how you work, where your income comes from, and what you need help with — whether that is a specific deadline, a backlog of records or a wider review of your tax position. Everything can be handled remotely: documents and records can be shared securely, questions answered by email or phone, and results discussed in a call at a time that fits around clinics and rotas. If you would prefer to meet in person, that can be arranged as part of the initial discussion. Once we understand your circumstances, we set out what support is appropriate, what is needed from you, and the timetable for accounts, returns and payments.