Three Great Tax Reliefs For Nurses

Do you work as a nurse or midwife?

If so, you might be paying more tax than you need to. Many nurses and midwives are unaware that there are some specific tax reliefs which you may be entitled to. Here are three tax reliefs specific to the nursing professions.

Uniform laundry

If you are required to wear a uniform as part of your work and you meet the expense of laundering the uniform yourself, you can claim a deduction for these costs.

The key points to consider are:

• The clothing has to be ‘recognisably a uniform’
• You must be required to wear it
• You must incur the costs of laundry

This deduction is available to all nurses including midwives and nurses of all grades. It includes nursing assistants, dental nurses, healthcare workers, students and auxiliaries.

Shoes and stockings

As a nurse or midwife, you may have to wear a very specific type or colour of shoes, stockings or socks in your place of work.

Where the wearing of a prescribed style of shoes, socks and/or stockings is obligatory in a hospital, you can also claim a small tax relief for the cost of buying shoes and stockings.

For male nurses, a tax relief for buying socks is also available (if there is a very specific style or colour of socks that is obligatory in your hospital).

Professional subscriptions

If you are a nurse or midwife, you can also claim tax relief on your subscription to your professional body.

If you pay a subscription to be a member of the RCN or NMC then you can claim the cost of this as a ‘professional subscription’. You can make a claim for the current tax year and, if you have never claimed these reliefs before, you can make a backdated claim for the previous six tax years.

You should contact the NMC or RCN to find out exactly what membership fees you have paid (and therefore what relief you can claim).

The RCN often send you the appropriate tax relief form in your annual membership pack. Once you have completed these forms they should be sent to your tax office – your payroll department will be able to tell you where this is.