Revenue eBrief No. 268/23

22 December 2023

General Medical Service (GMS) Scheme payments to medical practitioners

Tax and Duty Manual Part 04-01-15- General Medical Service (GMS) Scheme payments to medical practitioners - has been updated to provide guidance on a new provision, section 1008A of the Taxes Consolidation Act (TCA) 1997, which was inserted by the Finance (No. 2) Act 2023. Section 1008A provides that where individual General Practitioners (GPs) enter into contracts with the Health Service Executive (HSE), to provide certain medical services, and provide those services in the conduct of a partnership profession with other individual GPs, the income can be treated for income tax purposes as that of the partnership, where a joint election is made. The amendment also provides that any Professional Services Withholding Tax (PSWT) credit may be claimed by the medical partnership in such circumstances.

Section 1008A does not operate to treat income of an employee of a partnership as income of the partnership. Nor does it apply in the case of a partnership involving any persons who are not individuals.  

To avail of the tax treatment under section 1008A, a specified medical partnership joint election form must be submitted by the medical partnership through MyEnquiries (see 4.3.1). A joint election will take effect on the later of 01 January 2024 or the date on which it is made.

However, to allow GPs and medical partnerships time to make the necessary arrangements (submission of a joint election form and the subsequent notification of the medical partnership tax reference number to the HSE), Revenue will accept that relevant income paid in January 2024, and associated PSWT credits, may be treated as income/ PSWT credits of the medical partnership where a joint election is in place, and the requisite notification is made to the HSE, by 31 January 2024 (see 4.3.3).