Question submission date: June 2023
Full Question: “Working as a Locum Doctor, will I need to register for VAT?”
As a Locum Doctor with a limited company, you may be considering whether you need to register for VAT and it’s worth being sure of this before registering, saving you the trouble of de-registering further down the line if it’s not needed.
Only certain services provided by health and medical professionals can be chargeable for VAT – sometimes, the service that you could be providing will be exempt, for example with some direct healthcare services (this applies to both doctors and dentists) whereby you are giving patients direct care and advice yourself, and generally speaking this is more often than not the case.
But, it could be that your role is a little more indirect, for example, within an HR or admin function of a medical practice or organization – for these types of roles you will need to charge VAT on your invoices – that said, sometimes it’s not this black and white and the contract between yourself and the practice will determine whether you need to charge VAT or not. HMRC also have a guide outlining which roles constitute ‘health professionals’ and the situations whereby VAT would be payable here.
By giving your accountant further details on your type of contract and service offering, they’ll be able to help you determine your VAT applicability. Here’s some further reading with our handy VAT guide.
