Personal goodwill

Our client is employed by the National Health Service as a full-time consultant. In addition to this employment he has private income as a self-employed surgeon and this income is entirely generated by him.

He has no employees he rents a consulting room and apart from the other normal business expenses there is nothing unusual about the deductions from his profit.

We are suggesting that he incorporates his business and the question of valuing his goodwill has arisen. We consider that the goodwill is personal to him and that its value is minimal. However we are aware that in similar circumstances certain valuers are placing a figure on goodwill at one year’s fees and that there is a precedent for this.

Our client does not want HMRC to raise an enquiry into his tax affairs but he would like the goodwill valuation to be...