HMRC has been investigating the employment status of locum doctors and as a result they and the practices they work in may have to pay extra tax.
The Revenue has deemed that some locums, who are registered as self-employed, are in fact disguised employees at the GP surgeries where they work.
Last year, HMRC targeted 28,000 doctors through a tax amnesty and recovered £9 million from 1,500 doctors. Accountants have since warned that a large proportion of the irregularities discovered by the Revenue involved locums, and that any that are found to be disguised employees will be liable to repay tax plus interest, as will their practice.
In the eyes of the Revenue, if you act or look like an employee, you are classed as an employee and liable to pay tax as if you were one. Many GP practices pay their locums under an “employment contract” which HMRC determines automatically makes them an employee. To all intents and purposes these locums are employees but the practices want to avoid organising tax and paying holiday pay.
The chairman of the National Association of Sessional GPs, Dr Richard Fieldhouse, said that GP training did not educate GPs about self-employment and IR35 issues. Around 25% of GPs now work as locums, so it doesn’t make sense that the GP curriculum teaches doctors about working as a partner or salaried GP, but not as a locum. Ignorance of the law is not a valid excuse but practices just don’t think about the employment status of locums, he added.
© 2010 All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Image: If You Disappear, I Will Sacrifice Myself To An Exoskeleton and Be Devoured By The Remaining Light by DerrickT
