How to Claim Tax Back on HCPC Registration Fees

To claim tax back on HCPC registration fees, submit a claim to HMRC covering the fees you paid yourself, either online through GOV.UK, on paper form P87, by phone if you’ve claimed before, or through your Self Assessment return if you file one. The current HCPC renewal fee is £123.34, which is worth £24.67 a year to a basic-rate taxpayer and £49.34 to a higher-rate taxpayer.¹ You can backdate the claim four tax years, so a first-time claim can recover roughly £100 or more in one go.

Who Can Claim

Two conditions have to be met. Your job must involve practising the profession tied to your HCPC registration, and that registration must be a requirement for doing the work.²

You must also have paid the fee yourself. If your employer pays HCPC directly or reimburses you in full, there’s nothing to claim. Where an employer reimburses only part of the fee, you can claim on the portion that came out of your own pocket. The same applies to salary sacrifice arrangements: whatever amount effectively comes out of your earnings is what you can claim against.

Both initial registration and ongoing renewal fees qualify, as long as your employment requires the registration when you pay. If you registered before starting work in the profession, that first payment still counts provided you go on to take up a qualifying role.

How Much You Get Back

Tax relief doesn’t refund the whole fee. It reduces the income you pay tax on by the amount of the fee, so the cash value depends on your tax rate. For 2025–26, the basic rate is 20% and the higher rate is 40%.³

On the current £123.34 annual fee, that works out at £24.67 back for a basic-rate taxpayer and £49.34 for a higher-rate taxpayer per year. The £123.34 rate (£246.68 for the standard two-year renewal cycle) applies from 29 April 2025, replacing the previous £116.36 rate. New UK graduates from HCPC-approved courses pay a reduced £61.67 a year for their first two professional years, and relief is calculated on that lower figure.⁴

What to Gather Before You Start

You’ll need:

Your National Insurance number, which HMRC uses to find your tax record.
Your HCPC registration number, from your renewal confirmation or the online register.
The exact fee amount you paid in each year you’re claiming for. The fee has changed several times (£98.12 before July 2021, £116.36 from November 2023, £123.34 from April 2025), so don’t assume every year is the same.¹
Your employer’s name and PAYE reference, from a payslip or P60.
Receipts or other proof of payment. HMRC may ask to see them.⁵

The Four Ways to Submit

Which route you use depends on how you already deal with HMRC and how large your total employment expenses are.

Online Through GOV.UK

The fastest option is the online claim service on GOV.UK. It walks you through the eligibility questions and then takes your professional fee details. You’ll need a Government Gateway account. Submissions through this route are acknowledged immediately and tend to be processed more quickly than paper.⁵

Paper Form P87

If you’d rather submit on paper, download form P87 from GOV.UK. Fill in your personal details, employer information, and the professional body (“Health and Care Professions Council”) with the fee amounts for each tax year. Post it to Pay As You Earn and Self Assessment, HM Revenue and Customs, BX9 1AS.⁶

By Phone

If you’ve claimed tax relief for professional fees in a previous year and your total employment expenses are £2,500 or less, you can make your claim by phone. Phone claims aren’t available to first-time claimants or for working-from-home expenses.⁶

Through Self Assessment

If you already file a Self Assessment return for any reason, you must claim professional fee relief through your return rather than using P87 or the online service.⁷ Enter the HCPC fee under employment expenses in the relevant section. This is easy to overlook if you started Self Assessment after previously claiming with P87.

The £2,500 Limit

The online service and P87 are only available where your total employment expenses for the year are £2,500 or less. If your combined professional fees, uniform costs, and other work expenses go over that, you have to file a Self Assessment return.⁶ Most people claiming only HCPC fees are well under that limit, but it matters if you’re also claiming union memberships, specialist equipment, or fees to more than one professional body.

Backdating Up to Four Years

You can backdate a claim for up to four previous tax years alongside the current year. The UK tax year runs 6 April to 5 April, so in 2025–26 you can go back as far as 2021–22.⁵ Once the four-year window closes for a given year, HMRC won’t process a late claim for it.

Multiple years can be bundled into a single submission. Just list the correct fee for each year, since the amount has changed several times. Using the wrong figure for a past year can delay processing or trigger a query.

HMRC pays repayment interest on overpaid tax at the Bank of England base rate minus 1%, with a floor of 0.5%. As of January 2026 the rate is 2.75%, so backdated refunds include a small amount of interest on top of the tax.⁸

What Happens After You Submit

Processing times vary. GOV.UK has a tool that shows current turnaround. What arrives at the end depends on whether the relief relates to past years or the current one.

For previous tax years, HMRC issues a P800 tax calculation letter showing the overpaid amount. You can then claim the refund online (paid within five working days by bank transfer) or wait for a cheque, which HMRC will post within 14 days of the P800 date if you don’t claim online.⁹

For the current tax year, HMRC adjusts your tax code so less tax is deducted from your wages going forward. You’ll receive a P2 Notice of Coding with a line for “Professional Subscriptions”, which is the fee being added to your tax-free amount.¹⁰ The adjustment stays in place as long as you remain in a role that requires HCPC registration. Check your payslips after the new code arrives to confirm payroll has applied it.

Add Other Work Expenses to the Same Claim

HCPC fees are rarely the only work cost coming out of your own pocket, and you can claim other qualifying expenses on the same form.

HMRC publishes List 3, the register of approved professional organisations whose subscriptions qualify for relief on the same basis as HCPC fees.¹¹ If you belong to a specialist society or professional union, check List 3 before assuming it doesn’t qualify. You must have paid the fee yourself, and it must be relevant to your job. Life membership subscriptions don’t qualify.

If you wear a uniform or protective clothing at work and have to launder or maintain it yourself, you can claim a flat-rate deduction. The standard amount is £60 a year for job titles not listed in HMRC’s flat-rate expense tables, and some healthcare roles carry higher allowances.¹² Because it’s a flat rate, no receipts are needed.

Small tools or equipment you’re required to buy for the job and that last less than two years are claimed the same way as uniform costs. Larger items may qualify for capital allowances instead. Either way, you need receipts and have to show the equipment is genuinely required for work with no significant personal use.¹³

Stacking those smaller items alongside the HCPC fee is where the numbers add up. A basic-rate taxpayer claiming £123.34 in HCPC fees, £60 in uniform maintenance, and a £45 professional society membership recovers about £45 a year, and over £200 if the whole set is backdated.

1
Health & Care Professions Council. Changes to Our Registration Fees
2
HM Revenue & Customs. Employment Income Manual – EIM32890 – Other Expenses: Professional Fees and Subscriptions
3
GOV.UK. Income Tax Rates and Personal Allowances
4
Health and Care Professions Council. Paying Renewal Fees
5
GOV.UK. Professional Fees and Subscriptions
6
GOV.UK. Claim Tax Relief for Your Job Expenses by Post
7
GOV.UK. Claim Tax Relief for Your Job Expenses
8
GOV.UK. HMRC Interest Rates for Late and Early Payments
9
GOV.UK. If Your Tax Calculation Letter (P800) Says You’re Due a Refund
10
GOV.UK. PAYE Manual – Coding: Codes: How They Are Used and Calculated: P2 Notes
11
GOV.UK. List of Approved Professional Organisations and Learned Societies
12
GOV.UK. Check How Much Tax Relief You Can Claim for Uniforms, Work Clothing and Tools
13
GOV.UK. Claim Tax Relief for Your Job Expenses: Buying Other Equipment