Claiming for remedial medical expenses on self assessment

I am a self-employed, freelance Dental Nurse. During the course of my career, I have developed back issues which are managed with a combination of deep tissue manipulation and a chiropractor. If I am not nursing, then my back doesn't really affect me, however, due to the positioning I have to contort into during treatment, the pain becomes quite severe whilst working. My question is whether I can claim all or a portion of my costly medical expenses on my tax return. I understand that the argument of being unable to claim medical expenses if they have a benefit to your personal life usually comes into play, however, the pain and discomfort are specifically caused by and felt only during my work duties. My chiropractor has mentioned that they issue invoices for remedial medical management (for which I fall into) and these are used by their patients to claim against their tax return, however, I wanted to clarify this before I start trying to do the same. Thanking you in advance.

Hi Danielle Janes,
You can only claim expenses that are wholly necessarily and exclusively incurred in the performance of your duties and as such the costs you refer to are not allowable.
Please see Expenses if you're self-employed: Overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Expenses if you're self-employed
Thank you. 

 

Hi, Can someone clarify this answer provided to this question. A self-employed sole trader can only claim medical expenses "that are wholly necessarily and exclusively incurred in the performance of [work] duties". The nurse stated that her medical expenses relating to her back pain are a direct result from when only working as a nurse. This is "wholly necessarily and exclusively incurred" so why does the answer state such costs are not allowable? Also, the link does not provide information pertaining to self employed medical expense deductions. Thank you.

Medical bills have an unavoidable personal purpose to them so that even if there is also a trade purpose, the expenditure can't be wholly and exclusively incurred for trade purposes because of the unavoidable personal purpose. https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim37940

Hi Frank Biganski

From the example, the back pain is from a previous employment and not the actual self employment. the medical expenses are therefore not related to the self employment being done and therefore are not claimable.

Thank you

Thank you