New locum GPs · 2026/27
New Locum Starter Plan
Fill out the below to get a figure for how much money from every shift to set aside for your tax bill
- 1. Your start
- 2. How you will work
- 3. Salary this year
- 4. Loans and pension
When do you start?
The tax year your first session falls in sets every deadline after it.
What the starter plan works out
Starting from your first locum shift the plan calculates how much you will work and at what rate over the tax year. From here it works through your first two tax years as a self-employed GP month by month, including the fees you will receive, the tax, National Insurance and student loan fees on them, plus any NHS pension contributions and the tax relief that brings. This produces some concrete numbers for the three bills that will be due between your first session and your second 31st January as a sole trader.
A worked example: starting on 1 October 2026
6 sessions a week at £350, for 42 weeks a year, is about £88,200 of fees a year. Practices pay a month in arrears, so 2026/27 receives £36,750 and 2027/28 a full £88,200. With £3,000 of expenses a year and the locum work pensioned at 12.5%, the tax bills are £5,070 for 2026/27 and £20,504 for 2027/28.
- 31 January 2028: £7,605, which is 2026/27 tax bill (balancing payment) (£5,070) plus first payment on account for 2027/28 (£2,535).
- 31 July 2028: £2,535, the second payment on account.
- 31 January 2029: £25,685, the rest of 2027/28's bill plus the first payment on account for the year after.
Setting aside 24% of every fee, £1,764 in a full month, leaves £11,803 in the pot after the second January. The second January is the bigger shock for anyone who starts part-way through a year: the first year's bill is small, so its payments on account are small, and the whole of the first full year lands at once.
What it assumes
- Cash basis, HMRC's default for sole traders since 2024/25: fees count in the tax year they arrive, and they are assumed to arrive the month after the work.
- Payments on account are half of the year's income tax and Class 4 each. They are not asked for when that is £1,000 or less, or when more than 80% of the year's tax was taken through payroll, which a salaried job for most of the first year often does.
- NHS pension contributions reduce income tax, claimed on your return, and nothing else. The tier comes from your locum pay annualised over the days you work, counting two sessions as one day, which is why most locums land on the top rate. Scotland's scheme is not modelled.
- Making Tax Digital follows the return for the tax year two years earlier. A first year is never caught, but fees over £20,000 in 2026/27 bring you in from April 2028.
- 2026/27 rates and thresholds throughout, including for the years after.
The background is in the GP locum tax guide and getting started as a locum GP.
The full plan
The full plan lives in your GP Locum account at gplocumapp.co.uk: the dated bills, the tax pot month by month, your Making Tax Digital start date, your pension tier and monthly Form A and B routine, your student loan, and a dated setup checklist you can tick off, with every date in your own calendar and reminder emails before each deadline. For twelve months you can change your answers and everything is worked out again, and if you log your sessions in GP Locum it can use what you have actually been paid instead of the estimate.
It is a one-off payment and includes twelve months of GP Locum Pro, on the iPhone app and the website.
Frequently asked questions
- Why is my first tax bill so big?
- Because the first 31 January after your first tax year usually carries two things: the whole of that year's tax, since nothing was paid in advance, and the first payment on account towards the next year, which is half of the same bill again.
- Why is my set-aside different from the tax calculator's?
- The tax calculator works on one year's profit. The starter plan follows the money month by month across two tax years, with payments arriving a month after the work, a first year that is only part of a year, and any salary earlier in it, and then picks the whole percentage that pays every bill on time. Different questions, so the two can differ.
- Does it include the employer pension contribution?
- No. The 14.38% employer contribution you invoice on top of your fee passes through you to PCSE. It is not your income and does not count towards the Making Tax Digital threshold, so the plan leaves it out of your fees.
- Is this tax advice?
- No. It is your own estimates worked through on the published rates. HMRC's and NHSBSA's figures are the ones that count, and an accountant can check the plan against your circumstances.
Sources
Checked September 2026, against 2026/27 rates. Rates and factors change. The primary source wins if it disagrees with anything here.
- Understand your Self Assessment tax bill: payments on account, GOV.UK
- Register for Self Assessment, GOV.UK, the 5 October deadline
- Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: who is required to use it, GOV.UK
- Repaying your student loan through Self Assessment, GOV.UK
- GP Member Pension Guide, locum contributions and annualisation, NHSBSA
Read the guide
Getting Started as a Locum GP
The complete checklist from CCT to your first session: performers list, indemnity, the paperwork practices ask for, HMRC, invoicing, pension forms and what to charge.
Read guide →GP Locum Tax Guide
Every deduction that comes out of a newly qualified locum's fees: tax, Class 4 NI, student loan, pension, expenses and the first 31 January.
Read guide →Making Tax Digital for Locum GPs
Who is in scope, the quarterly deadlines, why the employer pension contribution stays out of turnover, and the filing routes.
Read guide →Locum GP Pension Guide
Forms A and B, the 90% rule, the 10-week deadline, and the annualisation traps that cost locums pension.
Read guide →Locum Tax Calculator
Work out what to set aside from your locum fees for tax and National Insurance.
Open tool →GP Locum Session Rate Calculator
Turn a target take-home income into the session rate you need to charge.
Open tool →Projections and figures are based on what you enter. Not financial advice, speak to a regulated adviser before making decisions.