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HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS

Specialist Accountants for Healthcare Professionals

Karia Accountants have experience in looking after the accounting, taxation and financial needs all those in the healthcare sector including Pharmacists and nurses and Doctors,

  • GP’s

  • Locums

  • Consultants

  • Pharmacists

  • Nurses

  • Other complementary healthcare specialists
     

At Karia Acocuntants, we offer locum doctors a fixed fee service which includes a full compliance service relating to your tax and accountancy affairs. Please view all the pages in this section to review our services and what services we can offer.
 

Please get in touch for more information about prices. Email us on info@kariaaccountants.com or call us on 01332 492101 to discuss your requirements further.

Doctors

Locum Doctors – Advantages and Disadvantages of going limited​

At Karia Accountants, we are experienced working with GPs, and other locum doctor’s and can help you with business decisions which will directly affect your income. As taxation specialists we can help keep your personal and practice tax bills to a minimum.

  • We can advise you on the best way top structure your affairs, whether as a sole trader, limited company partnership or LLP

  • We can advise you on what business expenses you can claim and as a result reduce your tax bill

  • We offer a bespoke service to match your requirements

  • Our fees are transparent: we offer competitive fixed rates for recurrent services and any fees for ad hoc services will always be agreed in advance with clients.

Advantages of being a Locum and working through your own limited company

If you’re considering becoming a locum doctor, then it is worth considering the advantages:

  • There is high demand which means you are very likely to have plenty of work

  • You can choose when and where to work

  • The opportunities available to you are potentially incredibly lucrative, from one day contracts to those lasting a year or more

  • The chance to learn new skills and broaden your experience

  • Locums usually attract higher rates of pay than permanent staff

Working through a limited company

If you do decide that working as a locum is the right career move for you, then there are considerable advantages to operating through your own limited company.

Choosing to work through a limited company will give you tax planning opportunities which would otherwise not be available to you. Sole traders are taxed on all their profits, less allowable expenses, whereas directors of limited companies are able to choose how much they withdraw from their companies. This means that you can spread your income from one tax year to the next, which is ideal for anyone who expects their annual income to fluctuate significantly from year to year. It is possible to withdraw funds from a limited company in order to keep your income beneath the tax threshold and spread your liability across two tax periods.

Similarly, it may be possible to organise your National Insurance Contributions to ensure that you are paying more than you need to as you might, for example, if you were undertaking work through an umbrella company.

A limited company protects your personal assets from any debts incurred by your business. As a sole trader, you and your business are treated as a single entity with no limits on your personal liability. A limited company is treated as separate from the individual, so long as it is properly run, and this can offer peace of mind and financial protection to anyone who wants to minimise their exposure to risk.

The average rates for locums will vary depending on your speciality, demand for your skills and the area in which you are seeking work. There are rough averages available on this website: http://www.mpplocums.co.uk/locum-payrates.html but for quick reference here are some going rates for different grades within different disciplines.

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If you want an idea of how much of your pay you could end up with, then please call us and we can help you to work out what you could be earning and send you a estimated tax calculation free of charge before you make the decision!

There is a certain level of administration needed to set up and trade as a limited company, however this could take as little as 15-20 minutes a month. With advice from our experienced accountants, our clients usually find that they manage the admin easily and the savings they make are more than worth it. It is important to note that, whilst forming a limited company can save you money on your tax bills, it is an entirely legitimate way of managing your finances and in no way similar to the tax avoidance schemes which HMRC investigates for using improper methods to minimise tax bills.

For more information on how to go about forming your limited company, we will send you a simple questionnaire to complete online and we do the rest.

Charging VAT for your service

In most cases, locum doctors will not need to charge VAT on their services, but this will depend on the kind of contract they have.

If you are a locum who works directly with patients in a hospital setting, then you are exempt from VAT and therefore will not need to add it to your bill.

However, if you are not treating patients and instead are responsible for performing administrative tasks, working in HR or a managerial position where you are not coming into direct contact with any patients then you would need to charge VAT for your services.

HMRC have a section on how VAT is applied for locum doctors which goes into further detail about the circumstances under which VAT is payable here: Health Professional.

Karia Accountants charges fixed fees depending on the services you require.

We don’t want our clients to be scared to contact us and potentially lose out on valuable tax saving advice, which is why we charge an all inclusive fixed fee package.  It’s important when you first start out as a freelancer that you run your business in the best way possible. As a start up you’ll probably have lots of questions, and will likely appreciate the fact you can call your accountant as many times as you like without the fear of racking up large bills.

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Doctors
Pharmacists

Pharmacy & Pharmacists

Pharmacy

Accounting and Tax planning for Pharmacists

Pharmacists and pharmacy managers are generally too busy in their routine patient care work to be over burdened by the administration of their accounting and tax matters. The changing nature of the role of the pharmacist within the NHS brings its own challenges and complexities. The tasks involved in meeting these challenges are best entrusted to a Healthcare specialist. Karia Accountants provide flexible accounting and tax advisory services to both individuals and partnerships to free up your time to focus on what you are qualified to do.

Primary financial care activities

  • Outsource the worry and workload involved in accounts, tax and pension arrangements

  • Maximise revenues and increase profitability

  • Keep robust books and payroll administration.

  • Comply with the ever changing legislation and regulatory demands.
     

Being Chartered Certified Accountants and Tax Advisers we can leverage our experience of the bigger financial picture to your advantage, helping you optimise your accounts, superannuation, taxation as well as pension arrangements.

We can also help improve your bottom line by raising business performance as well as minimising liabilities and taxation.

Dentists

Associate Dentists

Being self-employed can be rewarding but brings with it the burden of sole trader dental accounts and tax returns.

We take the hassle out of self-employment by taking care of it for you.  Including:

  • Registering you with HMRC for self-employment.

  • Annual sole trader accounts for your dental self-employment.

  • Preparation and submission of self-assessment tax returns.

  • Support with any letters from HMRC.

  • Advice on expenses that can be claimed.

  • Help with NHS Superannuation.

  • Guidance on limited companies and partnerships. We take a look at your individual circumstances and advise on the best structure.
     

As we deal with a portfolio of Associate Dentists, we have vast experience on how we can help structure your business in the most effective way.

Please email us on info@kariaaccountants.com or call us on 01332 492101 for an initial conversation.

Principal Dentists

Manager, mentor, business person, motivator, employer, dentist.  There’s a lot to being a Principal Dentist.We can help relieve the burden by taking care of your accounts and tax returns.  Including:

 

  • Registering you with HMRC for self-employment.

  • Providing bookkeeping software for your dental practice.

  • Help with funding or finance applications.

  • Advice on expenses.

  • Tax estimates, so no nasty surprises when you get your tax bill.

  • Annual accounts for your dental practice.

  • Preparation and submission of self-assessment tax returns and corporation tax returns (if applicable).

  • Payroll help and support.

  • Advice and support with setting up as a limited company or partnership.

  • Help with NHS Superannuation and completing the ARR.

  • Support with any letters from HMRC or Companies House (if applicable).
     

We provide the complete accountancy and tax solution for your dental practice. Please email us on info@kariaaccountants.com or call us on 01332 492101 for more information.

Dentists

Healthcare Professional Pricing

Healthcare professionals include Doctors, Dentists, Pharmacists, Nurses & Optometrists. Please email us at info@kariaaccountants.com, or call us on 01332 492 101 to discuss our services and pricing further.

Pricing

Locums

Being self employed, you are able to claim business expenses and set these off against your trading profit.

This will reduce your profit and tax bill.

Allowable Expenses

Tax law says that an expense is allowable for tax if it is incurred ‘wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the trade’.  If an expense is incurred for more than one purpose, i.e. business as well as personal use, a deduction for any identifiable proportion of the expense which is incurred ‘wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the trade’ is allowable.  We have set out some of the types of expenditure that may be allowable. It should not be seen as an exhaustive list. What is allowable depends on the facts in each case.

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Professional Subscriptions

At Karia Accountants, through our expeirence of dealing with Doctor’s we are able to advise on effective claiming the correct allowances and expenses in your UK Self Assessment tax return.

e.g. MDU, MPS, BMA, GMS, RCGP
These costs are always allowed by the Inland Revenue.

Motor Expenses

Motor expenses can be claimed on a car assuming it is used for the purposes of business.  The expenses have to be apportioned so that only those incurred ‘wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the trade’ are allowed.

This can then be applied to the total expenses for the year or period of assessment.  Below is a list of expenses that can be claimed.

  • Petrol and oil

  • Repairs and servicing

  • Insurance

  • Road tax

  • AA/RAC subscription

  • Parking

  • Cleaning

  • Finance interest

Other Expenses

Many other types of expenses can be claimed by locums. We provide our locum clients with detailed checklists and advice to ensure that all allowable expenses are claimed.

We charge a fixed price for UK Self Assessment tax returns with no hidden costs. Please contact us, so we can either have a telephone conversation or face to face at our offices in Derby.

Please call 01332 492101 for a conversation.

Locums
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