Medical practitioners operating in partnership

Overview

A General Practitioner (GP) is a chargeable person where he or she holds any of the following contracts with the Health Service Executive (HSE):

• General Medical Services (GMS) contract
• or
• other ancillary services contracts. 

GPs should report such income under the self-assessment system. A GP is the specified person for the purposes of Professional Services Withholding Tax (PSWT). A GP is entitled to claim a credit for PSWT deducted by the HSE on these payments.

Income from the provision of medical services may be treated as income of the partnership for Income Tax purposes where a GP has:

• entered contracts with the HSE to provide certain medical services
• and
• these services are carried out in the context of a partnership with other individual GPs. 

This tax treatment is available under section 1008A of the Taxes Consolidation Act (TCA) 1997. To avail of this tax treatment, the relevant GP and the medical partnership must make a joint election to Revenue.

In addition, the medical partnership can claim PSWT credits where a joint election is made. The GP partner with the HSE contract must provide the tax number of the medical partnership to the HSE. This is necessary for the purposes of operating PSWT correctly.

Next: How to qualify for this tax treatment