If you work for the NHS and pay for your own uniform upkeep, professional registration, or work travel, you can claim an NHS tax refund from HMRC to recover the income tax you paid on those costs. The claim covers up to four previous tax years in a single application, so a nurse, paramedic, or allied health professional who has never claimed can often recover several years of relief at once.
Tax relief lowers your taxable income rather than cutting your tax bill pound for pound. A basic-rate taxpayer (20%) claiming £125 in expenses saves £25 in tax. A higher-rate taxpayer (40%) claiming the same amount saves £50. Keep that mechanic in mind when you see headline figures.
Who Can Claim
The legal test under Section 336 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 is that any expense must have been incurred “wholly, exclusively and necessarily in the performance of the duties” of your job.1Legislation.gov.uk. Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 – Section 336 In practice, that means the cost had to be a genuine requirement of the role, not something you chose for convenience.
You cannot claim for anything your NHS Trust has already reimbursed. If your employer paid part of a cost, you can only claim on the portion you covered yourself.1Legislation.gov.uk. Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 – Section 336 The relief applies across NHS roles, including nurses, midwives, doctors, healthcare assistants, physiotherapists, radiographers, porters, and allied health professionals.
Uniform and Laundry
If you wear a recognisable uniform or branded clothing for your NHS role, you can claim a flat-rate deduction of £125 per tax year for laundering and maintaining it.2GOV.UK. Check How Much Tax Relief You Can Claim for Uniforms, Work Clothing and Tools Receipts are not required for the flat rate, though HMRC can still check that you genuinely wear a uniform for work.
Two smaller allowances often go unclaimed. Where your employer requires everyone to wear the same colour or style, you can claim £12 per year for shoes and £6 per year for tights or stockings.2GOV.UK. Check How Much Tax Relief You Can Claim for Uniforms, Work Clothing and Tools
You cannot claim the laundry flat rate if your employer provides a free laundering service and you choose not to use it, and you cannot claim for ordinary clothing worn to work.4GOV.UK. Claim Tax Relief for Your Job Expenses – Uniforms, Work Clothing and Tools
Professional Fees and Subscriptions
Registration and subscription fees are often the largest part of an NHS claim. You can get relief on fees paid to organisations on HMRC’s approved List 3, provided the membership is relevant to your job.3GOV.UK. Claim Tax Relief for Your Job Expenses – Professional Fees and Subscriptions Organisations on the list that cover NHS staff include the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Royal College of Nursing, and UNISON Healthcare Sector.5HM Revenue & Customs. List of Approved Professional Organisations and Learned Societies (List 3)
One restriction to be aware of: UNISON Healthcare Sector members can only claim relief on 70% of their annual membership fee, not the full amount.5HM Revenue & Customs. List of Approved Professional Organisations and Learned Societies (List 3) If your annual UNISON fee is £150, you claim relief on £105. Memberships of organisations not on List 3 are not claimable, however professionally relevant they seem, so check the list before including a subscription.
Mileage and Work Travel
Your daily commute to a permanent workplace is never claimable. If you use your own vehicle to travel between sites during the day, or to attend a temporary workplace, you can claim relief where your employer pays nothing or pays less than HMRC’s approved mileage allowance payment (AMAP) rates:6HM Revenue & Customs. Travel – Mileage and Fuel Rates and Allowances
- Cars and vans: 45p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year, then 25p per mile
- Motorcycles: 24p per mile
- Bicycles: 20p per mile
If your Trust pays less than these rates, you claim relief on the shortfall. A community nurse who drives 8,000 business miles and receives 20p per mile from their employer could claim the 25p-per-mile difference, worth £2,000 of relief.
A workplace counts as temporary if you attend it for a task of limited duration or another temporary purpose, and your time there does not last (or is not expected to last) more than 24 months.7Legislation.gov.uk. Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 – Section 339 This matters for rotations, secondments, and bank shifts. If an assignment is known from the start to run over 24 months, the travel is ordinary commuting and cannot be claimed at all. If a shorter assignment gets extended past 24 months, you lose the relief from the point you learn of the extension.
Mileage needs proper records. HMRC expects a mileage log showing the reason for each journey and the start and end postcodes.8GOV.UK. Evidence Required to Claim PAYE (P87) Employment Expenses Start logging now even if you plan to claim later.
Backdating Four Years
You can claim relief for up to four years after the end of the tax year in which the expense was incurred.9GOV.UK. SACM12155 – Overpayment Relief – Time Limits for Making a Claim The deadline runs from 5 April at the end of the relevant tax year. As of April 2026, the oldest year still open is 2021/22, which ended 5 April 2022. Once that window closes, the tax year is settled.
This is where most of the money sits for NHS staff who have never claimed. A nurse paying NMC fees and laundering uniforms for five years without claiming can submit a single application covering the four most recent eligible years. Even modest expenses of £300 a year produce a combined refund of around £240 at the basic rate; higher-rate taxpayers recover twice that.
How to Submit the Claim
Most NHS employees use form P87, available for claims of £2,500 or less per tax year. If your total expenses for a year exceed £2,500, you have to file a Self Assessment tax return instead.10GOV.UK. Claim Tax Relief for Your Job Expenses by Post
You will need your National Insurance number, your employer’s PAYE reference (on your P60 or P45), and the exact amounts spent in each category for the year you are claiming.11HM Revenue and Customs. P87 – Tax Relief for Expenses of Employment
Since December 2024, HMRC has an online iForm that lets you submit the claim and upload evidence digitally.12ICAEW. Claims for Job Expenses Can Be Made Online Otherwise, print and post the paper P87 to Pay As You Earn and Self Assessment, HM Revenue and Customs, BX9 1AS.10GOV.UK. Claim Tax Relief for Your Job Expenses by Post If a tax agent is claiming on your behalf, only the paper form is accepted.
Evidence You Need
Since October 2024, HMRC requires supporting evidence for most P87 claims:8GOV.UK. Evidence Required to Claim PAYE (P87) Employment Expenses
- Professional subscriptions: receipts or other proof of what you paid
- Mileage: a log for each employment with reason, start postcode, and end postcode for every journey
- Hotel and meal expenses: receipts showing the date and the name of the hotel or restaurant
- Other expenses: a full list of items plus receipts showing the item name and that you paid
Flat-rate uniform and laundry claims are the exception and do not need receipts, though HMRC can still check that you wear a uniform.8GOV.UK. Evidence Required to Claim PAYE (P87) Employment Expenses
How the Refund Reaches You
For P87 claims, HMRC issues refunds by cheque posted to your registered address, even when you submitted the form online.13Low Incomes Tax Reform Group. Tax Refunds For the current tax year, HMRC sometimes adjusts your tax code instead so that less tax comes off future payslips. If that happens, check your next payslip to confirm payroll has applied the new code.
Working From Home No Longer Claimable
From 6 April 2026, individual employees can no longer claim tax relief for working-from-home expenses directly from HMRC; the Finance Bill 2025–26 abolished the relief. The previous £6-per-week flat rate is gone. After April 2026, the only route is through your employer: NHS Trusts can still reimburse genuine homeworking costs without creating a tax liability, provided the payments are reasonable and evidenced. If your role involves administrative or clinical work from home, raise it with your employer rather than trying to claim direct.
Penalties for Inflated Claims
Under Schedule 24 of the Finance Act 2007, the penalty for a careless mistake on a tax relief claim is up to 30% of the tax you underpaid. A deliberate inaccuracy rises to 70%, and a deliberate inaccuracy with concealment (such as fake receipts) can reach 100%. Penalties can be reduced if you disclose an error voluntarily before HMRC finds it, with unprompted disclosures of careless errors capable of being reduced to 0%.
Claim only what you actually spent, keep the records the evidence rules require, and do not round up. Honest mistakes on modest amounts rarely cause serious problems; fabricating expenses is a different matter.