By Kym Nitschke — Fellow Chartered Accountant & Managing Partner, Nitschke Nancarrow
Kym has spent more than 20 years as a specialist accountant and financial adviser to doctors, dentists and medical professionals across Australia. He is a Fellow Chartered Accountant, financial planner, and host of the Accounting Insider podcast.
Reviewed and updated for the 2025–26 financial year.
Doctors are among the highest-taxed professionals in Australia — but many pay more than they need to, simply because they don’t claim everything they’re entitled to. Between long hours and demanding rosters, tax is understandably the last thing on your mind. Yet a well-organised approach to deductions can save a high-earning doctor thousands of dollars every year.
This guide walks through the deductions available to medical professionals in Australia — from AHPRA registration and indemnity insurance to self-education, equipment and working-from-home costs — plus the specific issues that affect registrars, contractors and practice owners.
The golden rule: to claim a deduction it must be directly related to earning your income, you must have paid for it yourself (and not been reimbursed), and you need a record to prove it. Keep every receipt.
Professional registration and memberships
These are some of the most valuable and clear-cut deductions for doctors:
- AHPRA annual registration — your yearly medical registration renewal is deductible.
- Professional indemnity insurance / medical defence organisation (MDO) premiums — fully deductible.
- College and association memberships — AMA, RACGP, RACS, ACRRM, ANZCA and similar professional bodies.
- Professional journal subscriptions relevant to your field.
For a doctor on the top marginal rate, an AHPRA fee and MDO premium alone can return well over a thousand dollars at tax time.
Education, training and CPD
Self-education is deductible when it relates to your current role and helps you maintain or improve the skills you’re already paid for:
- Continuing professional development (CPD) courses and points
- Conferences and seminars (including travel and accommodation where the primary purpose is the conference)
- Textbooks, journals and professional resources
- Exam and course fees for your current specialty
Important nuance: if the study is to move into a different field — for example a GP registrar funding surgical training with no connection to their current income — the deduction is far less certain. This is exactly the kind of grey area worth checking with your accountant.
Equipment and tools
- Medical equipment and instruments (stethoscopes, loupes, diagnostic tools)
- Laptops, tablets and phones — the work-related portion
- Software and apps used for work
- Items costing $300 or less can generally be claimed outright; more expensive items are depreciated over their effective life.
Clothing and laundry
- Compulsory uniforms and scrubs with a practice logo
- Protective clothing and safety footwear
- Laundry and dry-cleaning of the above
Everyday clothing you could wear outside work is not deductible, even if you only wear it at the hospital.
Working from home
If you do genuine work from home — telehealth, research, admin, on-call paperwork — you can claim running costs (electricity, internet, phone) using either the ATO’s fixed-rate method or the actual-cost method. You’ll need a record of the hours you work from home.
Car and travel
- Travel between two different workplaces on the same day (for example, from your clinic to a hospital) is deductible.
- Travel to conferences and work-related education.
- Overnight work travel — flights, accommodation and meals.
The trip from home to your regular workplace is not deductible, and neither is parking at your normal place of work. A logbook is the most reliable way to substantiate car claims.
Other commonly missed deductions
- Income protection insurance premiums (when held outside super)
- Union and professional association fees
- Tax agent fees — the cost of managing your tax affairs is itself deductible
- Work-related phone and internet (the work portion)
- Donations of $2 or more to registered charities
Special situations
Junior doctors, interns and registrars
Early-career doctors are employees, so you can claim AHPRA, indemnity, CPD and other work-related costs — but not home-to-work travel or grooming. Getting into good habits now (keeping receipts, claiming correctly, understanding your pay and super) pays off for the rest of your career.
Contractors and Personal Services Income (PSI)
Many doctors work as contractors through a service arrangement or their own entity. This brings the Personal Services Income (PSI) rules into play, which affect what you can claim and how your income is taxed. Getting the structure right here is critical — and genuinely complex.
Practice owners and service trusts
If you run a practice, you may use a service trust to provide administrative services to the practice. The fees charged must be commercial and properly documented, with genuine services actually provided. Done correctly, a service entity can be tax-effective and provide asset protection; done poorly, it attracts ATO attention. This is specialist territory.
How much difference does it really make?
Because doctors sit at the top of the marginal tax scale, every dollar of legitimate deduction is worth up to 47 cents back (including the Medicare levy). Claiming an extra $8,000–$10,000 of genuine deductions you’d otherwise have missed can mean $4,000+ back in your pocket. Multiply that across a career and the value of getting it right is enormous — which is why most doctors find a specialist medical accountant more than pays for themselves.
Frequently asked questions
Can I claim my AHPRA registration? Yes — your annual AHPRA renewal is fully deductible.
Can I claim my Medical Board / indemnity insurance? Yes — professional indemnity and medical defence organisation premiums are deductible.
Can I claim conferences and CPD? Yes, where they relate to your current role — including reasonable travel and accommodation.
Can I claim travel to work? No — home-to-work travel isn’t deductible. Travel between two workplaces on the same day is.
Should a registrar bother with an accountant? Yes. The cost is small, it’s deductible, and getting your deductions and structure right early sets you up for the years of higher income ahead.
This article is general information only and does not take your personal circumstances into account. Tax rules change and the right approach depends on your situation — please speak to a qualified accountant before acting.
Ready to keep more of what you earn?
Nitschke Nancarrow has spent 20+ years as specialist accountants for doctors and medical professionals in Adelaide. We’ll make sure you claim everything you’re entitled to and set up the right structure for your stage of career. Call 1300 059 670 or book a consultation with our medical accounting team.
About the author
Kym Nitschke is the Managing Partner of Nitschke Nancarrow, an Adelaide accounting and financial advice firm he has led for over two decades. A Fellow Chartered Accountant with degrees in Commerce (Accounting) and Economics, Kym is also a licensed financial planner, mortgage broker, property developer and licensed builder — and has specialised in the financial affairs of doctors and medical professionals for more than 20 years. He hosts the Accounting Insider podcast, where he shares wealth-building strategies from his own experience and his clients’.
