RCVS, VDS and Professional Fees

You cannot practise as a veterinary surgeon in the UK without being on the RCVS register, and the annual renewal falls due on 1 April each year. The 2026 to 2027 standard annual renewal fee for veterinary surgeons was set at £431, following a 3 per cent increase from £418.

The fee is a professional cost required to carry on your trade and is ordinarily allowable in full. Where the RCVS offers payment by instalments, the deduction still follows the fee rather than the payment plan.

As a self-employed locum you need your own professional indemnity arrangements. Cover provided to an employed vet through a practice does not automatically extend to your locum work, and a locum working through their own company needs to check the position for the company as well as for themselves.

The cost varies with the species you work with, how much you work and the indemnity limit you choose. It is an allowable business expense where you hold it for your locum work.

CPD that maintains or updates the skills you already use in your work is generally allowable, including course fees and the associated travel. Training that gives you an entirely new qualification or field of expertise can be treated as capital in nature and disallowed, which is a genuine grey area worth checking before you commit to an expensive certificate.

Subscriptions to professional bodies relevant to your work are ordinarily allowable. Bodies on HMRC approved list are the clearest cases.

Where a practice reimburses your RCVS fee or your indemnity cover as part of a locum arrangement, that reimbursement is part of your income and the cost is your deduction. You cannot claim a cost someone else bore without also including what they paid you.