As a specialty doctor, you are likely paying for GMC, BMA, medical indemnity and your college.
A typical specialty doctor pays £1,529 to £2,408 a year on these. Your trust pays none of it back, but £576 to £928 can come back from HMRC, if you keep the receipts.
Estimates from published fees for a typical full-time specialty doctor. Yours might differ. Fees checked on against each body’s own fee page.
Specialty doctor take-home pay after tax and NHS Pension ›Specialty doctor tax rebate on fees, back four years ›
What you pay, receipt by receipt
Three fees come with every specialty doctor post. The GMC charges an annual fee to keep you registered. The BMA charges for membership. Medical indemnity is an estimate, because the MDU, MPS and MDDUS each quote individually.
That is £1,372 to £2,072 a year before your college. All three count for tax back: HMRC returns the income tax you paid on that money, once you claim it.
GMCreceipt.pdf
GMC annual fee
With a licence to practise
Total£481.00
✓ HMRC tax back
BMAcard statement
BMA membership
Annual subscription
Tax back on 85% of the fee
£49.25 a month
Total£591.00
✓ HMRC tax back
Then your college, one more fee
There is one more receipt: your royal college membership. The figure is an estimated range across the main colleges, and the receipt links to the fee pages at each end of it.
The last slip adds it all up, four fees in all.
Specialty doctora typical year, with the three costs above
You pay in total£1,529 to £2,408
HMRC, 40%£576 to £928
Logos belong to their owners and show where each fee goes. Reimbsr is not affiliated with these bodies.
Who pays you back
In a typical year the money comes from one place, HMRC, and only once you ask. Your trust pays back nothing to a specialty doctor.
Nothing for this post
Trusts in England pay back exam fees, and from April 2027 membership fees, for resident doctors and locally employed doctors. A specialty doctor post is not covered, so your trust has no fee to pay back.
That is why every receipt above is marked for HMRC.
GMC, BMA, medical indemnity and your college
On fees you pay yourself, HMRC gives back tax at your income tax rate. The estimate uses 40% for a specialty doctor. For the BMA, it counts 85% of the subscription. Medical indemnity and the college are estimates.
You claim on the P87, HMRC's form for claiming tax back on work costs you pay yourself (like GMC and BMA fees). It covers this tax year and the last four. Over £2,500 in a year, you use Self Assessment instead.
Claiming is easy. Proving it, a year later, is not.
Every claim goes to HMRC, which covers this tax year and the last four. Four bodies bill you, and each receipt lands somewhere different. By the time you sit down to claim, they have scattered.
- The college receipt is in an email from the membership office, or on an account you rarely open.
- The medical indemnity invoice shows the figure you were quoted, and it sits apart from everything else.
- The four fees leave your account on different dates, with no single record.
- By the time you fill in the P87, the payments on your statements are hard to tell apart.
Keep each receipt the day it arrives, and the claim is ready when you are.
Reimbsr keeps the proof from the day you pay
At the end of the tax year, your four fees are already in one place, ready for your tax back. No old emails to search, no year of statements to piece together.
- Snap it or forward itSnap the receipt, forward the email to your own Reimbsr address, or add a drive. It reads the amount, date and claim deadline for you.
- See who pays you backEach expense is sorted into what your trust pays back and what HMRC gives tax back on, with the rule behind it. Not sure? Ask Reimbsr. It answers from published NHS and HMRC guidance, with sources, and in a grey area writes the question for you to send to medical staffing.
- Check it, then send itReimbsr builds one PDF with every line and receipt, and drafts the email to whoever approves your expenses. You check it and send it from your own email.
- Get your tax backIt fills in your P87 at the end of the tax year, on Free and Pro, so you get tax back on the fees your trust does not pay.
Doctors like you (Specialty doctor) are typically eligible for £576 to £928 back as tax relief a year.It will be free to try; you may never need to upgrade. Pro is £49.99 a year (£0.96 a week), only if it saves you more than it costs. See pricing ›
Free to start. Upgrade only if it pays.
In keeping with making financially savvy decisions, Reimbsr will be free to try. Only upgrade to the Pro version (£0.96 a week) if you think the app can help you save more money than it costs.