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NEWS: Zosia Kmietowicz Individual drug firms should stop paying for medical education BMJ 2009; 338: b442 [Full text]

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UK Doctors should be able to offset medical education expenses against their tax bill

John D Woods   (12 February 2009)

UK Doctors should be able to offset medical education expenses against their tax bill 12 February 2009
John D Woods, Consultant Physician Belfast BT9 7AB Send response to journal: Re: UK Doctors should be able to offset medical education expenses against their tax bill	In order to revalidate doctors registered with the GMC will have to fulfill the minimum requirements for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of their respective Royal Colleges. The requirements for re- certification may be more onerous. Currently the Inland Revenue do not allow doctors who are not self employed to easily offset CPD expenses against their tax bill. The drug industry is said to fund about half of all postgraduate medical education. It is inevitable that if this proportion falls that individual doctors will have a pay a greater share of their necessary CPD expenses. Government should agree that such expenses are fully tax deductible for all medical practitioners. Competing interests: None declared