Use gross fees before consumables, mileage and clinic room costs are deducted.
If you're a self-employed podiatrist or chiropodist, whether working from your own clinic, visiting patients at home or in care homes, or splitting your week between the two, Making Tax Digital applies to you the same way it applies to any self-employed sole trader. The details worth getting right are how consumables, mobile mileage and clinic room splits fit into your figures.
Yes, if your gross self-employed income, plus any other self-employment or rental income, exceeds the relevant threshold:
| Tax Year Assessed | Threshold | MTD Start Date |
|---|---|---|
| 2024–25 | Over £50,000 | 6 April 2026. Live since April 2026 |
| 2025–26 | Over £30,000 | 6 April 2027 |
| 2026–27 | Over £20,000 | 6 April 2028 |
Your gross income is your total fees received before expenses, consumables, mileage, clinic room rent, HCPC and insurance costs are all deducted afterwards, not before, when working out where you stand against the threshold.
Many podiatrists combine fixed clinic sessions with domiciliary visits, treating patients who can't easily travel, in their own homes or in care homes. Both income streams are simply combined as ordinary self-employment income for MTD purposes, there's no separate category or different treatment for domiciliary work, it's added to your clinic income and assessed against the same threshold.
A common working arrangement is renting a treatment room inside someone else's clinic, salon or physiotherapy practice, either paying a fixed rent or agreeing a percentage split of the fees you generate.
| Expense Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Clinical consumables | Scalpel blades, dressings, verruca and nail treatment materials |
| Professional registration | HCPC annual registration fee |
| Professional indemnity insurance | Via a professional body or independent arrangement |
| Mileage | Travel between domiciliary visits, at the current HMRC rate |
| Clinic room costs | Rent or split-fee percentage paid to a clinic owner |
| Equipment | Podiatry chairs, instruments, autoclaves, via capital allowances |
Marcus's combined income of £40,500 sits between £30,000 and £50,000, so he falls into Phase 2, joining MTD from April 2027 based on his 2025–26 income.
Your own retained share. If a clinic owner takes a percentage of each fee before paying you the rest, only what you actually keep counts as your MTD qualifying income, not the full patient fee.
The same as any self-employed sole trader: over £50,000 gross income in 2024–25 means MTD from April 2026, over £30,000 in 2025–26 means April 2027, over £20,000 in 2026–27 means April 2028.
No. Domiciliary income is simply combined with your clinic income as ordinary self-employment income, there's no separate category or different threshold treatment for home or care-home visits.
Yes, at HMRC's current approved mileage rate, 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year, then 25p per mile after that.
If you pay a fixed rent and keep all the fees you collect, your full fee income counts towards MTD, and the room rent is simply claimed as a separate business expense, rather than being netted off your income first.
Any HMRC-recognised MTD software works. There's no podiatry-specific requirement, the main need is good categorisation of consumables, mileage and clinic room costs, which standard software handles easily.
Our free calculator checks your exact threshold, deadlines, and recommends the easiest software for your record-keeping.
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