Becoming a locum means embracing a different way of working – you’re now your own boss and that requires a slight shift in mentality. There are a number of different factors to consider when you’re self-employed and what you focus on will depend on how you’re choosing to approach your work. Below are some of the essentials for locums entering the self-employed market.

Budgeting

Managing money when the income isn’t set is a challenge for anyone the first few months that you do it but it becomes second nature once you get the hang of it. Keep track of your incomings and outgoings, predict your monthly expenses and keep all your receipts.

Define your fee

There are no set fees for locums so it’s worth informing yourself when it comes to the factors that might affect your rates – and consequently your budgeting. Your experience, seniority, local market conditions and comparable rates for other similar professionals will all have an impact.

Manage your incomings and outgoings

You need to be a great budgeter as a locum and the starting point for that is getting to grips with what to put into that budget. Your net income figure will be the amount you earn before tax but after expenses. Your expenses must relate to your job, for example subscriptions to professional organisations, travel expenses, telecommunications expenses and office costs (if applicable).

Tax and National Insurance

The most significant choice when it comes to tax is deciding whether you want to be paid as a company (pay corporation tax rates of 20%-21%) or as an individual (pay income tax rates of 20%-40%). As a company you’ll pay less tax but there’s significantly more administration and as an individual there’s less to handle but you may end up handing over more to HMRC. Either way you become responsible for paying your own tax and NI contributions, rather than your employer, as may previously have been the case.

Pension

Employer’s contributions are required for practices engaging locums as of April 2013. Where you’re pensioning your income you need to state the employer’s contribution separately on your invoices.

Mortgage

Getting a mortgage when working temporary doctor jobs is more complicated than when you have the backing of a regular employment contract. You need at least two years of self employment to prove your income – that’s two full sets of accounts – and you should be prepared for an in depth interview concerning your finances, including going through your credit record in great detail.

    Apply for job



    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *