Medical accounting procedures in future can continue to incorporate tax relief for unusual but necessary use of taxis.
The government has been consulting on whether to abolish the relief, which allows employees to claim for up to 60 taxi journeys each year.
In order to qualify, the journey must be to get home from work after 9pm, in a location where public transport is unavailable or unreasonable, and must be an irregular occurrence.
However, the government has decided to retain the relief, which PricewaterhouseCoopers says could persuade HMRC to interpret any future claims in “the spirit of the exemption”.
“The consultation proved that potentially scrapping this relief would put security and safety of staff at risk, particularly women,” adds PwC tax partner Alex Henderson.
While for many doctors who work night shifts, the use of taxis would not be deemed ‘irregular’, there are others – such as general practitioners in remote locations – who could find they qualify if they are detained at work by an emergency.
As such, any receipts for such travel could be included in medical accounting calculations to receive relief on income tax and National Insurance contributions.
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