What can you claim as expenses as a locum healthcare professional?

One of the genuine financial advantages of working as a self-employed locum is the ability to claim business expenses against your tax bill. Most locums underclaim, either because they are not sure what is allowed or because they do not keep the records they need to substantiate a claim.

This guide covers the main expense categories relevant to locum healthcare professionals.

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The basic rule

HMRC's rule is that an expense must be wholly and exclusively incurred for the purposes of your business. This rules out anything with a dual personal and professional purpose, except where you can objectively separate the two elements.

The test is not whether the expense is useful for your work. It is whether it would have been incurred anyway, even without the business. A car you use for both personal and professional travel is not wholly and exclusively for business use, but the business mileage you rack up in it is claimable. A stethoscope you use only at work is wholly and exclusively for business use.

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Mileage

Mileage is typically the largest single expense for locums who travel between multiple sites.

HMRC's approved mileage rates from 6 April 2026 are 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the year, and 25p per mile after that, using your own car. The car and van rate went up from 45p on that date, so journeys before 6 April 2026 are still claimed at 45p and a 2025 to 2026 return uses the old rate. For motorcycles the rate is 24p per mile throughout. Cyclists can claim 20p per mile. Both of those are unchanged.

The 24-month rule you may have read about is an employee rule, in section 339 of ITEPA 2003, and it does not apply to a self-employed locum. Your test is the wholly and exclusively test in section 34 of ITTOIA 2005, which in travel cases comes down to whether your work is itinerant, moving between many sites with no regular base, or whether a site has become a regular place of work. Travel between home and a regular workplace is ordinary commuting and is not claimable; travel between sites, and to genuinely occasional workplaces, usually is. HMRC's Business Income Manual from BIM37600 sets out the cases. For most locums working across multiple sites on a rotating basis, most travel will qualify. When in doubt, ask your accountant.

You cannot claim for ordinary commuting to a single regular workplace. If you work at one practice three days a week for years, travel to that practice is unlikely to qualify.

Keep a mileage log recording the date, purpose, destination, and miles for every business journey. HMRC can ask to see this.

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Professional registration fees

Your annual registration fee to your regulatory body is fully deductible. This covers:

• GMC registration (doctors)
• GPhC registration (pharmacists)
• NMC registration (nurses and midwives)
• HCPC registration (physiotherapists, paramedics, radiographers, occupational therapists, dietitians, speech and language therapists, psychologists, and others)
• GDC registration (dentists and dental hygienists)
• GOC registration (optometrists)

These are expenses you incur solely because of your professional practice and are straightforwardly claimable.

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Professional membership and subscriptions

Membership of professional bodies and associations that are relevant to your work is claimable. Examples include BMA membership, NASGP membership, Royal Pharmaceutical Society membership, and similar bodies across other professions.

Journal subscriptions and clinical reference tools used for your practice are also generally claimable.

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Professional indemnity insurance

Your indemnity premium is a business expense. If you pay monthly, you can claim each payment in the year it is paid. Keep your insurer's payment confirmation as evidence.

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Continuing professional development

CPD costs that are directly relevant to your current professional practice are claimable. This includes course fees, conference registrations, and study materials.

CPD that would qualify you for a different career or a different specialty is on shakier ground. The expense needs to relate to the work you are doing now, not to future work you are planning to do.

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Equipment

Clinical equipment you use in your work is claimable. A stethoscope, a clinical bag, a pulse oximeter, a peak flow meter, or similar items used professionally qualify. Items that could reasonably be used personally as well are harder to claim in full.

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Telephone and broadband

If you use your personal mobile for work calls, you can claim the proportion that relates to business use. If you have a dedicated business phone, you can claim the full cost.

The same applies to broadband if you use it partly for work purposes, such as accessing clinical systems remotely or administering your practice.

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Accountancy fees

The cost of your accountant preparing your Self Assessment, advising you on your business structure, or dealing with HMRC on your behalf is itself a deductible expense.

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Home office

If you work from home regularly for administrative purposes, you may be able to claim a proportion of your home running costs (heating, electricity) as a home office expense. HMRC has a simplified flat rate for this. The rules are relatively conservative and the amounts involved are modest, but they are worth claiming.

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What you cannot claim

A non-exhaustive list of things that regularly trip people up:

Everyday food and drink. The coffee and lunch you buy on an ordinary working day at a site you attend regularly is not claimable. You have to eat whether or not you are working, so it fails the wholly and exclusively test. HMRC does accept reasonable subsistence in two situations, set out in BIM47705: where the trade is genuinely itinerant, and on a business journey that is occasional and outside your normal working pattern, including the overnight stay and the meals that go with it. So the hotel and dinner for a two-day course in another city are claimable; the sandwich at your usual Thursday site is not.

Clothing. Standard professional attire, even if you only wear it for work, is not claimable unless it is a uniform or protective clothing that cannot be worn as everyday clothing.

Fines. Parking fines or other penalties are not deductible.

Personal travel. Holidays, personal trips, or the personal proportion of any mixed journey cannot be claimed.

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Record keeping

HMRC requires you to keep records for five years after the Self Assessment deadline for the relevant tax year. For expenses this means keeping receipts, invoices, and bank statements. For mileage it means a contemporaneous log. Reconstructing records from memory at the end of the year is both unreliable and harder to defend if HMRC queries your return.

The practical advice is simple: log it at the time. A mileage note on the day takes thirty seconds. Finding those thirty seconds when you are driving between practices is harder than it sounds, which is why most locums underclaim.

Sessional (sessional.co.uk) includes HMRC-rated mileage tracking and expense logging for locum healthcare professionals across all 17 professions. Free to start.

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This guide reflects HMRC rules as understood for the 2026 to 2027 tax year. Tax rules change. This is general guidance only and not a substitute for advice from a qualified accountant who knows your specific circumstances.