- What HMRC owes you back on the work costs you paid for yourself. Your NMC or HCPC fee, royal college and other approved subscriptions, exams, courses, work mileage, uniform laundry and required working from home. It totals the allowable costs and values them at the rate of tax you actually pay.
- No. Relief means you do not pay tax on that part of your income, so you get back the tax you already paid on it, not the whole cost. Spend £143 on your NMC fee as a basic-rate taxpayer and you get roughly £29 back, not £143.
- Because the rate is what people get wrong near a threshold. From your pay we work it out the way HMRC does: the tax you owe, minus the tax you would owe with the expenses taken off. That handles a claim straddling two bands, and the 60% zone between £100,000 and £125,140. You can still pick a band by hand.
- Yes, the current tax year and the four before it. If you have never claimed, the back years are usually the bigger number. The five year figure assumes your costs and rate were the same each year, so treat it as an upper bound.
- Work journeys that are not your ordinary commute: between sites, to a different trust, community visits, or to mandatory training. Home to your normal place of work does not count. From 6 April 2026 the car rate is 55p a mile to 10,000 miles and 25p after. It was 45p for fifteen years, so most guidance online is out of date. Mileage rates on GOV.UK
- Uniform upkeep yes, ordinary clothes no. HMRC sets a flat rate for each job, no receipts needed: £125 a year for nurses, midwives, therapists and healthcare assistants, plus £12 for shoes and £6 for tights where everyone must wear the same colour or style; £80 for laboratory and pharmacy staff; £185 for ambulance staff on active service; £60 for anyone not named. Or your actual costs, if receipts come to more. PPE is your employer's to provide. Flat rate expenses on GOV.UK
- Only if you have to work from home, not if you choose to. A contracted admin session at home can qualify; catching up on paperwork at the kitchen table does not. It is £6 a week flat rate.
- Anything your employer reimbursed you for, anything your study budget covered, your ordinary commute, and courses that qualify you for something new rather than maintaining the job you already do. Claiming for those is a false claim, not a grey area.
- GOV.UK and HMRC for the mileage rates, working-from-home rate, uniform flat rates, tax bands and the approved professional bodies list; the NMC and the HCPC for their own fees (the HCPC's is £246.68 for two years). Primary sources only, never another calculator.
- Through GOV.UK, free, in about ten minutes. This calculator gives you the numbers to take with you and links straight to the claim page. Never pay a refund company a cut of your own money for this. Claim on GOV.UK
- No. Doctor Devify Ltd is not authorised to give tax or financial advice. This is an estimate to help you prepare a claim you file yourself. If your situation is complicated or the numbers are large, speak to a chartered accountant.
- Tap 'Spot a mistake? Let us know' under the calculator. Tell us what is currently shown, what it should be, and ideally a source URL.
- Dr Dev Gakhar (Doctor Devify), an NHS resident doctor and content creator.
