Starting private work may seem daunting but spending the time to plan and understand how to trade in this medical sector should ensure you build a successful practice. In the last of this series, we recap on the key points to consider and provide top tips for building your private practice.

Despite the changes in recent years, being a member of the NHS Pension Scheme should still provide you with a secure retirement. These changes require you to work longer than previous generations, but the level of contributions payable for the return is still attractive. This article explains some of the recent pension changes and important pension tax-related matters.

If you’re just starting out in private medicine, you may only have come across the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system, which tends to look after itself. When you’re running a business, you will have additional requirements to register with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), earnings to declare under Self Assessment, and taxes to pay directly to HMRC.

When starting in private practice, how you are structured for tax purposes is an extremely important decision. Picking the most appropriate trading structure for your individual circumstances will ensure you are tax efficient and maximise the return on your hard efforts. This article looks at the more common trade structures adopted for private work.

One of the main factors to consider when you start out in private practice is that you are running a business. It sounds obvious, but with little or no financial training it is easy to fall into the trap of not running your private practice like a business, and this almost always leads to financial loss. The second article in this series looks at the practical steps required to run your private practice as a business.

It is never too early to be thinking of whether you will undertake private work when you have secured your substantive consultant post. This is the first in a six-part guide to starting out in private practice to help you to hit the ground running when the time comes.