Working as a self-employed locum pharmacist can provide an amazing employment situation. There are a few things that you’ll need to look into, including how you’ll pay your taxes if you’re self-employed.
With all the travel you’ll be doing getting to different pharmacies, you might be wondering if you can claim mileage back from your taxes – it’s not quite a yes-no answer, so let’s take a closer look.
Your employment status
First of all, it’s important to note that the way that you go about claiming mileage will look very different if you’re an employee compared to if you’re self-employed and finding work through an agency such as Pharma Seekers. Many locum pharmacists find that it’s best to go the self-employed route – this can allow you to work in a more diverse range of settings, without being attached to any one place in specific.
Self-employed
If you’re self-employed, then you’ll claim any mileage that’s considered an allowable expense when you do your self-assessment tax return. In the return, you’ll find a lot of information about what’s considered an allowable expense or not.
There are a lot of strict rules that determine what can and what can’t be claimed. It’s important that you’re confident about the rules, as you’ll potentially have to argue your case if you’re audited by HMRC, and you’ll need to have documents and laws to reference if it does come to that.
Employed
If you’re employed and paid a regular wage, then things will be slightly different. If you regularly need to drive between pharmacy jobs, then there are several ways that your employer can pay for your travel. In some cases, it might be a company car, meaning you don’t have to work out what bits of wear and tear you need to claim.
Whether it’s a company car or your own car, you can either pay for petrol or diesel on your own card and then get reimbursed, or what will often be easier is to simply pay for it using a company card. That way, you don’t need to deal with paying tax on the money you get when you’re repaid – it’s all self-contained in the business.
Keeping records
Whether you’re claiming yourself in your own tax assessment or you’re claiming it directly from a company, you’ll need to make sure that you keep records of all the money you spend on travel. If that’s in a car, then you’ll need to keep receipts for filling up the tank, and of which locations you’re driving between.
The HMRC also has recommended rates that businesses should follow when reimbursing employees who use their own cars, to try to factor in other expenses such as wear and tear. It’s important that you have the right kind of insurance in some cases; you’ll need to stipulate before you take out the policy that you’re going to be using it for work travel, not just for leisure.
In many cases, you can claim mileage as a locum pharmacist, but you need to make sure that you do so in the right way. This will depend on how you’re travelling, and what your legal employment arrangement is, among other things.
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