Healthcare Accountants

Keeping you and your finances on track

Increasingly, those working in the healthcare sector need to react quickly to the changes in their business landscape to provide quality patient care as well as maximise profitability. The challenges of today’s healthcare sector are multifaceted; from constant changes in legislation, policy and government funding, to how to effectively care for our growing and ageing population, as well as dealing with the stresses and strains of the current environment.

Organisations operating in the healthcare sector range from traditionally structured GP partnerships (including Primary Care Networks, independent consultants to larger and more corporate providers).

Our team of specialist medical accountants are long-standing members of the Association of Independent Specialist Medical Accountants (AISMA), recognising our skills and experience as advisors on the accounting, taxation, pension and practice management issues facing General Practice today. Being part of AISMA allows our team to have a national reach and be at the forefront of the developments and changes in the General Practice landscape.

As the largest independent firm of chartered accountants in the South West, we’ve worked with a wide variety of individuals and organisations in the healthcare sector providing accounting, audit, tax, corporate finance and advisory services to:

GP practices and locum GPs
NHS consultants and private medical providers
Dentists & Dental Practices
Primary Care Networks (both incorporated and unincorporated)
Vets
Pharmacies
Care Homes

Healthcare Accountants sector illustration

Get in touch

Accounting and taxation for Doctors

Doctor examining child We understand the unique challenges facing GP practices in today’s environment and have the specialist knowledge and skills to support you with your annual accounting, tax returns and financial planning so that you can focus on the needs of your patients and practice.

Sole-trade or Partnership accounts are key for GPs, as these determine their allocated profits and in-turn this drives any annual pay-out cycle and provides the results to calculate tax liabilities. Having a true understanding of GP practice accounts is key, given the ever-changing funding streams and number of transactions that occur on an annual basis. Our team of advisors will prepare the partnership accounts, keeping an eye on sources of income that may not have been fully maximised and assist you in identifying opportunities to collect additional income. Our advisors are keen to assist you in understanding the calculated figures, including the impact these have on individual partners.

In the ever-changing General Practice landscape and the introduction of Primary Care Networks, we have experience in the preparation of the financial statements for these. Be it through a group of partnerships, or the creation of a limited Company, we can assist on all aspects of accounting and taxation.

As well as being able to assist with the compliance aspects of running a GP practice, we are able to offer specialist advice, be it in relation to incoming and outgoing Partners and their associated arrangements, property ownership and funding and also drawings and financial projections. Having an understanding of the impact of these on the Practice is key, so that sound financial decisions can be made, leading to a profitable and successful business.

Due to the large number of GP practices that we current act for, we are able to pool our resources and provide tailored benchmarking statistics. These statistics allow you to compare your practice against your peers, so that you can maximise income streams and efficiently manage costs. Our team of experts will provide you with an understanding of how you compare and where you can look at or consider improvements.

For GP Practices, we are able to support you with the preparation of the annual Partnership tax return, as well as the preparation of Partners’ personal expense claims, so as to maximise the tax relief received against your income sources.

From there, the Partnership tax return provides the GPs with their reportable profits, so that we can advise on tax liabilities and upcoming payments.

Due to the experience and skills of our teams, we can also assist with the preparation of the annual Type 1 and Type 2 pensionable earnings certificates. These forms determine the earnings for an individual’s pensionable profits, which in turn affects their pension in retirement, so it is keen to ensure these forms are completed fully and accurately.

As well as GP partners, many doctors either start or continue their careers as locum or salaried GPs – we can advise on matters such as complying with HMRC regulations, national insurance, the NHS pension scheme (including associated forms), tax relief on various expenses, VAT and the completion of your Personal Income Tax Return. As well as this, having a key understanding of your working practices and arrangements will allow us to consider alternative structures, whether that is as self-employed contractor or through the operation of a limited company.

NHS Pensions and Planning

The NHS pension is of huge benefit to those in the medical profession and provides adequate funds for the hard-earned retirement of its employees and self-employed GP Partners.

The scheme in itself is exceptionally complex with differing rules and benefits dependent on when an individual started their career within the NHS. Understanding the implications of the scheme throughout an individual’s career is key, but more importantly as they near retirement. Understanding finances in retirement will all for appropriate plans to be made, so that a comfortable and fulfilled retirement can be achieved.

With a team of experienced and technically competent advisors, coupled with our Francis Clark Financial Planning colleagues, we can assist with all aspects, tax or otherwise, of the NHS pension scheme. In recent years there have been numerous issues relating to the Annual and Lifetime Allowance for pension members and the impact this has had on the medical profession has been widely publicised. As well as the scheme in itself being complex, the paperwork and reporting requirements are just as difficult to manage and navigate. We have experience in assisting with all aspects of these, including ‘Scheme Pays Elections’.

With the recent McCloud v Sargent case relating to age-discrimination, now is the time to take control of your pension and to understand your finances.

For those services that are provided in healthcare settings, which are not exempt from VAT, such as dispensing activities, our teams along with our specialist VAT advisors can help you with your VAT compliance, but also provide tailored advice as and when it is required. With a pro-active approach we aim to make use of the concessions available to the healthcare sector, to maximise VAT recovery and ensure that VAT reporting is efficient and accurate.

Accounting Software

Given the stresses and strains within the medical profession, accounting software can help with automating your financial and administrative processes, as well as assist in managing cashflow, reporting and even preparing the payroll. In turn this offer time savings and efficiencies. Through our work with our clients we’ve been able to see first hand the benefits of having and utilising the correct software package.

With the introduction of Making Tax Digital (MTD) for self-assessment looming ever closer, now is the time to consider your software package in readiness.

We can assist you in choosing the right package for your healthcare business. With a team familiar with the leading software providers, we can provide tailored training and support, so that any transition away from your current package is smooth and stress-free.

Given that the majority of current software providers operate within the ‘cloud’, these packages offer real-time-information, which can assist you in understanding the performance of your business. Given the live data can be accessed directly by our teams, we can also quickly assist with queries or difficulties that you are having when inputting or managing the financial data.

Group of business people and software developers working as a team in office

Accounting and taxation for Consultants

Our experienced teams can provide a range of specialist services to consultants working in the healthcare sector including all aspects of accounting and taxation compliance, personal tax planning, financial advice, advice on business structures, NHS pensions, maximising tax relief and payroll services.

Ensuring that your business and private practice is structured in the most-efficient way is key. This may mean considering the use of alternative structures, such as a limited Company. Upon creation of a limited company, we can assist with shareholding structures, so that income can be extracted in the most efficient way.

As well as this, we can help you find an accounting system that fits in with your business and helps ease the administrative and financial burden. If this is too much, we can assist with the regular bookkeeping, so that your records are up-to-date and accurate.

Care and Nursing Homes

We have extensive experience working with the owners of care and nursing homes to further their businesses using our suite of accounting and taxation services. Owners of care homes have complex business demands and their time is limited.

With our specialist knowledge of the needs of your industry, we can help you with annual accounting, audit and assurance, pension management, tax planning, corporation tax returns, VAT and many other financial services.