Tax planning

The tax planning dashboard models your income tax, National Insurance contributions, and pension reserves based on your actual booking earnings. It takes your gross income from recorded bookings, applies your configured expense rate, and calculates the tax you should expect to owe across every relevant band.

The planner updates in real time as you log bookings, so your projected liability stays current throughout the tax year. You can view figures as an annualised projection or as a year-to-date running total. Change the tax year in the Settings bar to re-run the estimate under a different year's rules.

If your employment type is set to self-employed, the planner calculates:

• Income tax: applied in bands after your personal allowance (£12,570 for both 2025/26 and 2026/27). Standard rates are 20% basic, 40% higher, and 45% additional.
• Class 4 NIC: 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above that.
• Class 2 NIC: no longer charged as a mandatory weekly amount for self-employed people earning above the Small Profits Threshold (£6,845 for both 2025/26 and 2026/27). Voluntary contributions remain available below that floor to preserve State Pension entitlement; the planner does not assume voluntary payment.

The planner deducts your configured expense percentage and any fixed annual expenses before calculating taxable profit.

If your employment type is set to limited company, the planner models an optimal salary-plus-dividends strategy:

• Salary: set at the personal allowance level to minimise employer's NIC while using your tax-free band.
• Corporation tax: 19% on small profits (under £50,000) and 25% on the main rate (over £250,000), with marginal relief in between following the HMRC formula (U − N) × 3/200.
• Employer's NIC: 15% on salary above £5,000 (the rate rose from 13.8% and the threshold dropped from £9,100 at the start of the 2025/26 tax year).
• Dividend tax: after the £500 dividend allowance. For 2025/26: 8.75% basic, 33.75% higher, 39.35% additional. For 2026/27 and later: basic and higher rates rose by 2% to 10.75% and 35.75%; the additional rate stays at 39.35%.

Both self-employed and limited company calculations are shown side-by-side on the earnings page so you can compare strategies.

If your region is set to Scotland in your profile, the planner automatically uses Scottish income tax rates instead of the rUK bands. National Insurance rates remain the same across the UK. Only income tax differs.

2025/26 Scottish bands:

• 19% starter rate (£12,571 – £14,876)
• 20% basic rate (£14,877 – £26,561)
• 21% intermediate rate (£26,562 – £43,662)
• 42% higher rate (£43,663 – £75,000)
• 45% advanced rate (£75,001 – £125,140)
• 48% top rate (above £125,140)

2026/27 Scottish bands (Starter and Basic extended per the Dec 2025 Scottish Budget):

• 19% starter rate (£12,571 – £16,537)
• 20% basic rate (£16,538 – £29,526)
• 21% intermediate rate (£29,527 – £43,662)
• 42% higher rate (£43,663 – £75,000)
• 45% advanced rate (£75,001 – £125,140)
• 48% top rate (above £125,140)

You can customise your tax model from your finance profile. The settings that affect the calculation are:

• Deductible expense rate: a percentage of gross income treated as allowable expenses (e.g. travel, equipment, insurance). Adjust this to match your typical claim rate.
• Additional annual expenses: a fixed amount for costs like accountancy fees or professional subscriptions that apply regardless of income.
• Pension contributions: NHS pension tier contributions are factored in automatically based on your annualised earnings. Contributions reduce your taxable income.
• VAT registration: if you are VAT-registered, the planner adjusts calculations accordingly. Clinical work supplied by a registered health professional whose principal purpose is the patient's health is VAT-exempt under VAT Notice 701/57; exempt income does not count toward the £90,000 registration threshold. Non-clinical income such as medico-legal reports, expert-witness work, cosmetic procedures, and the supply of goods (spectacles, OTC retail) is generally standard-rated and does count. Most clinical-only locums never need to register.

Toggle between two views on the tax planning dashboard:

• Annualised: projects your current earnings rate across the full tax year. Useful for understanding your likely tax band and total liability.
• Year-to-date: shows actual earnings and tax accrued so far this tax year. Useful for tracking how much you should have set aside already.

• Gross income: annualised from your actual recorded bookings, using the date span of sessions so sparse workloads don't over-annualise
• Deductible expenses: adjustable percentage plus fixed annual extras
• Income tax / corporation tax: HMRC bands for the selected tax year (including Scottish rates)
• National Insurance: Class 4 (self-employed) or employer's NIC (Ltd). Class 2 is not charged for profits above the Small Profits Threshold.
• Pension reserves: NHS pension contribution tiers
• Suggested reserve: how much to set aside for your tax bill

The planner is a single-source-of-income forecast. It does not model the following items, all of which are real and may materially change your tax bill. Set extra reserves aside if any apply to you.

• Personal allowance taper above £100,000: HMRC reduces your £12,570 personal allowance by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income above £100,000, hitting zero at £125,140. The effective marginal rate in this band is around 60%. The planner uses the full £12,570 throughout.
• Self Assessment payments on account: if your tax liability for a year is more than £1,000 and less than 80% is collected at source, HMRC requires two payments on account toward the next year. Each payment is half of the prior year's bill, due 31 January and 31 July. Your January 2027 bill could therefore be roughly 1.5 times the actual 2025/26 liability shown here.
• Student loan repayments: 9% above £26,900 (Plan 1), £29,385 (Plan 2), £33,795 (Plan 4), or £25,000 (Plan 5); 6% above £21,000 for Postgraduate Loan. Collected via Self Assessment for self-employed earners.
• High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC): kicks in at £60,000 of adjusted net income, claws back 1% of Child Benefit per £200 over the threshold, full claw at £80,000. Paid via Self Assessment.
• Tapered pension annual allowance: standard AA is £60,000. If both your threshold income (above £200,000) and adjusted income (above £260,000) cross the limits, your AA reduces by £1 for every £2 of adjusted income above £260,000, down to a minimum of £10,000 at £360,000 of adjusted income. Crossing the AA triggers an AA charge through Self Assessment. NHS pension growth counts toward AA via your annual benefit statement.
• Other income: rental, dividends from external companies, savings interest above the personal savings allowance, capital gains, employment PAYE income outside the platform.

Sources: HMRC income over £100,000; payments on account; student loan; HICBC; pension AA.

Tax planning tools are available on the Basic plan and above.