Doctor’s expenses allowed

During the relevant years of assessment the taxpayer now a consultant dermatologist worked for the NHS as a specialist registrar in dermatology.

She was employed by various NHS trusts under a succession of employment contracts with terms that required her to attend training courses and she claimed back the expenses incurred in this training – which HMRC tried to appeal.

As the specialist registrar post was ‘essentially a training post [in which] seeing patients… is only one aspect of training’ according to one of the taxpayer’s employers each of her contracts required her to undertake courses and training at her own expense as a pre-requisite of her keeping her employment and remaining up to date.

This clause was present in the employment contracts of all specialist registrars in dermatology although some training hospitals provided in-house training and financial assistance. The taxpayer...