Whether you are a salaried vet in a large practice or a locum working across multiple surgeries, understanding your allowable expenses can significantly reduce your tax bill. This guide covers the key deductions available to veterinary professionals in 2026/27 and explains how your employment status affects what you can claim.
Employed vs locum: understanding your tax status
Most salaried vets are employed under PAYE. Your practice deducts income tax and National Insurance before paying you. Your ability to claim expenses is limited to costs your employer requires you to incur but does not reimburse. You claim these via a P87 form or Self-Assessment.
Locum vets are typically self-employed. You register for Self-Assessment, invoice practices directly (or through an agency), receive gross payment, and deduct all allowable business expenses from your profits before calculating tax. This gives you a much wider range of claimable costs. See our self-employed tax guide for the full process.
Some locums work through a limited company — in that case, different rules apply. Our sole trader vs limited company guide can help you decide which structure is best.
RCVS registration fees
Your annual registration with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) is mandatory to practise. If you pay this yourself (rather than your employer paying it), it is a tax-deductible expense because the RCVS is on HMRC's approved list of professional bodies. The annual retention fee is approximately £400 — at the higher rate of tax, that saves you £160.
If your practice pays it on your behalf, you cannot claim it. However, some practices add it to your taxable salary (shown on your payslip as a benefit). In that case, you are paying tax on it and can claim it back.
CPD courses and conferences
The RCVS requires a minimum of 35 hours of Continuing Professional Development per year. If you fund your own CPD (courses, webinars, conferences, study days), the costs are deductible including:
- Course fees and registration
- Travel and accommodation for residential courses
- Textbooks and journals related to your specialism
- Online CPD platform subscriptions
- Examination fees for specialist qualifications (e.g., RCVS Certificates or Diplomas)
The principle is the same as for other professions: the training must update or maintain existing skills, not equip you for a fundamentally different career. A small-animal vet taking an orthopaedic surgery course is fine. A vet retraining as a human doctor is not.
Specialist equipment and instruments
If you purchase your own clinical equipment — stethoscopes, ophthalmoscopes, dental instruments, scrubs, or surgical loupes — and your employer does not reimburse you, these are allowable expenses. Items costing over £1,000 may need to be claimed as capital allowances (spread over time) rather than as a revenue expense in a single year, but the Annual Investment Allowance (£1 million) effectively means most vets can deduct equipment costs immediately.
Locum vets who carry their own kit (diagnostic equipment, portable scanners) can deduct the full cost of purchase and maintenance.
Professional indemnity insurance
All practising vets need professional indemnity insurance. If you arrange and pay for your own policy (common for locums, less common for employed vets who are covered by the practice's policy), the premium is an allowable expense. Typical annual premiums range from £500 to £2,000 depending on your specialism and claims history.
Vehicle costs for home visits and farm calls
If your work involves travel to farms, stables, or home visits, the costs are deductible. You have two options:
- Simplified mileage: Claim 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles, then 25p per mile thereafter. Keep a mileage log recording date, destination, purpose, and miles.
- Actual costs: Claim the business proportion of fuel, insurance, servicing, road tax, and depreciation. This requires detailed records and a log of business vs personal miles.
For locum vets driving between practices, each practice you visit is a temporary workplace, so the travel is business mileage. For employed mixed-practice vets doing farm calls from the surgery, those journeys are also business travel (from your permanent workplace to a temporary client site).
Other allowable expenses for locum vets
- Agency fees or commission (if using a locum agency)
- Accounting and bookkeeping fees
- Mobile phone costs (business proportion)
- Professional subscriptions (BVA, specialist associations)
- DBS check renewal costs
- Laundry of scrubs and work clothing
- Home office costs (simplified: £6/week flat rate, or actual proportion of household bills)
Calculate your take-home as a locum
Use the income tax calculator to estimate your tax bill. Enter your gross locum income minus allowable expenses to see what you will actually take home. Remember that as a self-employed vet you will also pay Class 2 and Class 4 National Insurance on top of income tax. If this is your first year of self-employment, budget for payments on account — HMRC will ask you to prepay next year's tax in advance.