Midwife Tax Relief Guide: Everything You Can (and Can't) Claim

It would be easy to write this guide as if midwifery needed an entirely separate set of rules from nursing — it doesn't, and pretending otherwise wouldn't serve you well. Both professions register with the NMC, both are covered by the same historic HMRC flat-rate uniform allowance, and both follow the same general P87 claims process. What genuinely differs is the professional body (RCM rather than RCN) and the shape of mileage claims, which for community midwifery follows a caseload and home-visit pattern that's worth covering properly rather than folding into a generic "community NHS staff can claim mileage" line. For the mechanics that apply across NHS roles generally, see the Tax Relief hub. Figures here were checked against current HMRC and NMC guidance at the time of writing, but fees and thresholds change — verify the current position before relying on a specific number, and treat this as general information rather than personal tax advice.

What midwives can and can't claim — the overview

• ✓ Can claim: the £125 flat-rate uniform/laundering allowance, plus the shoes and tights/socks top-ups — identical to nursing, since both are NMC-regulated
• ✓ Can claim: your NMC registration fee, if you pay it yourself and aren't reimbursed
• ✓ Can claim: RCM membership subscription, where you pay it personally and it's treated as an approved professional body
• ✓ Can claim, and often the biggest claim available: mileage relief for community midwives conducting home visits, on the shortfall between HMRC's approved rate and your trust's actual reimbursement
• ✓ Can claim: mandatory CPD and revalidation-related costs that maintain your existing NMC registration, where self-funded
• ✓ Usually can't claim: the cost of gaining a brand new qualification, as opposed to maintaining your existing registration
• ✓ Can't claim: ordinary commuting between home and a fixed base (relevant mainly for hospital-based midwifery)
• ✓ Can't claim: everyday clothing, normal shift meals, or anything your trust has already reimbursed

The £125 uniform and laundering flat rate — identical to nursing

Because midwives are NMC-regulated in the same way as nurses, HMRC's standard flat-rate expense allowance for staff who wear a required uniform and launder it themselves applies identically: £125 for the tax year, a figure that has applied since 2014/15 and remains current for 2025/26 and 2026/27. Worked through tax relief rather than paid directly, it's worth £25 a year to a basic-rate (20%) taxpayer, or £50 a year at higher rate (40%).

Midwives also share the same additional flat-rate top-ups HMRC has long recognised alongside the core £125 for nursing and midwifery specifically — an allowance towards shoes, and towards tights or socks worn as part of uniform. These sit within the same overall claim rather than needing a separate process, but are easy to miss if you only claim the headline £125 figure.

• • You must wear a required uniform for your role, not clothing you've chosen to wear yourself
• • You must launder and maintain it yourself — if your trust provides or makes available a laundering service, you're generally not eligible even if you don't use it
• • You must have paid UK Income Tax in the year(s) you're claiming for

For the full mechanics of this allowance, including how backdating and tax codes interact with it, see NHS Uniform and Laundry Tax Relief Explained — the core rules here apply to midwifery exactly as they do to nursing.

Your NMC registration fee

Midwives pay the same annual NMC registration fee as nurses, since both professions sit on the same register. Where you pay this yourself, the full amount is generally deductible. This is currently £120 a year, with the NMC council having approved an increase to £143 a year from 1 October 2026 — the first rise in the main registration fee in 11 years — subject to the usual parliamentary approval process. Build the higher figure into your planning from that date rather than assuming the fee stays flat.

RCM membership — midwifery's own professional body

Where nurses typically look to the RCN, midwives have their own dedicated professional body — the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) — and RCM subscriptions work the same way for tax purposes as RCN subscriptions do for nurses: relief on the actual amount you pay yourself, where the RCM is treated as an approved body for this purpose and you're not reimbursed. RCM's fee structure is banded by membership category, with a lower rate for newly qualified midwives than for established members, and rates change periodically — check RCM's current fee table for your own category rather than relying on a single headline figure, since the amount you can claim relief on is whatever you're genuinely paying.

• • Only the portion you pay yourself counts — employer-paid or reimbursed subscriptions aren't separately claimable
• • RCM and NMC subscriptions are separate claims, but are commonly submitted together on the same P87
• • Some midwives also hold RCN membership instead of or alongside RCM — the same general approved-body test applies to whichever body you actually pay

Mileage: the genuinely distinct part of midwifery's tax position

This is where midwifery earns its own guide rather than being folded entirely into nursing's. Community midwifery is built around a caseload model — antenatal checks, postnatal visits, and home visits conducted at patients' addresses rather than patients travelling to you. Even where this shares some structural similarity with district nursing's community model, the volume and pattern of home visits in a typical community midwifery caseload can make mileage the single largest tax relief claim available to a midwife, larger than the uniform allowance, NMC fee and RCM subscription put together.

The mechanism is the same one that applies across NHS roles: HMRC sets an approved mileage rate for tax purposes (55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year, 25p after — this rose from 45p from 6 April 2026, the first change since 2011). The NHS separately pays its own nationally agreed mileage reimbursement rate under Agenda for Change, which has sat above or below HMRC's rate at different points and is itself periodically reviewed. When your trust's rate is below HMRC's approved rate, you can claim Mileage Allowance Relief on the shortfall for your genuine business miles. When it's above HMRC's rate, the excess is normally taxable rather than extra relief you can claim — the opposite of what a lot of staff assume.

Given how much a mileage claim can be worth for a busy community caseload, keeping a genuine, contemporaneous log — dates, visit addresses or areas, purpose, and miles driven — matters more here than for almost any other claim in this guide. Even where your trust's own visit-scheduling system records some of this, keep your own record too, since supporting a personal HMRC claim is your responsibility.

CPD and revalidation costs

Like nursing, midwifery revalidation with the NMC requires demonstrating ongoing practice hours and continuing professional development, typically on a three-yearly cycle. Where you fund this yourself and it's genuinely aimed at maintaining your existing registration and current role — rather than a new qualification altogether — it's generally viewed more favourably by HMRC than costs aimed at gaining something new.

• ✓ CPD maintaining your current registration and midwifery practice: generally more likely to be treated as deductible
• ✓ A new qualification that would newly qualify you for a different role or specialism you don't currently hold: generally not deductible, however useful for your career
• ✓ Anything reimbursed by your trust or funded through NHS study leave budgets: not separately claimable

In practice, this covers things like RCM-run study days, relevant midwifery journal subscriptions (MIDIRS and similar resources are commonly used for this purpose), mandatory training updates, and conference attendance genuinely tied to keeping your existing registration current — provided you've paid for it yourself and it isn't already covered by your trust's study leave budget. A postgraduate qualification in a distinct area — independent prescribing pursued as a new addition to your scope of practice, for example, or a Master's undertaken for career development rather than as a condition of your current post — sits closer to the "gaining something new" side of the line and is a much less safe assumption to claim without checking first.

Hospital-based versus community midwifery: why this guide treats them differently

It's worth being explicit about why mileage gets a whole section above rather than a single generic line, because it genuinely splits midwives into two quite different tax positions depending on where you work. A midwife based entirely on a labour ward, postnatal ward or a co-located birth centre has a claims profile close to the general checklist at the top of this guide — uniform, NMC fee, RCM subscription, and CPD — with little or no recurring mileage claim, because their working pattern is a normal commute to one fixed site rather than a caseload of addresses to visit. A community midwife, by contrast, often has all of that plus a substantial, recurring mileage claim that can be worth more than everything else in this guide added together, simply because of how many home visits a typical caseload involves across a working year. Neither position is more or less "correct" — they're just genuinely different tax situations that happen to sit under the same job title, which is exactly why a midwife should read the mileage section above carefully rather than skipping it because it feels like it might not apply to their specific role.

If you split your time between both settings — some community caseload work and some hospital shifts, which is common in many trusts' rotational midwifery models — the mileage relief still applies to the genuine business miles you drive during the community portion of your work, even if it's not your full-time pattern. Keep your mileage log specific to the days and visits it actually covers, rather than trying to average or estimate across a mixed rota.

What midwives commonly assume is claimable but isn't

• ✕ Commuting to a fixed hospital base — relevant mainly to hospital-based midwifery, but never claimable however far it is
• ✕ Everyday clothing worn alongside uniform that isn't itself part of the required uniform
• ✕ Meals and refreshments on an ordinary working day at your normal base
• ✕ A new qualification or specialist course pursued to move into a different role, rather than maintaining your current NMC registration
• ✕ Anything your trust has already paid for or reimbursed, even partially

How to actually make a claim

Every claim in this guide — uniform allowance, NMC fee, RCM subscription and mileage relief — is submitted directly to HMRC, not through your trust, almost always using form P87, either online through your personal tax account or by post. If your unreimbursed expenses exceed £2,500 in a tax year (realistic for a high-mileage community midwife once mileage relief is included), you may need Self Assessment instead. For the full walkthrough, see How to Claim NHS Tax Relief Yourself.

Get notified when midwife tax relief figures change

NMC fees, RCM subscriptions and mileage rates all move periodically — we'll email you when the numbers on this page are updated.

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Why you can rely on this page

• ✓ The £125 uniform flat rate and NMC fee figures are checked against current HMRC and NMC guidance, not assumed from an old article
• ✓ We're upfront that midwifery shares most of its core position with nursing, rather than inventing artificial differences to pad this guide out
• ✓ We give genuine midwifery-specific detail on RCM membership and community caseload mileage, rather than a nursing guide with 'midwife' swapped in
• ✓ We flag the mileage rate comparison honestly, including that trust reimbursement can sit above or below HMRC's rate depending on when you check
• ✓ This guide is not affiliated with HMRC, the NMC, RCM, NHS England or DHSC, and isn't personal tax advice

This guide is provided for general information only, is not affiliated with HMRC, the NMC, the RCM, the NHS or the Department of Health and Social Care, and is not tax advice. Fees, rates and thresholds change — for your own exact eligibility and claim, check HMRC's and the NMC's current guidance or speak to an accountant.

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions

Is midwifery's tax relief position really the same as nursing's? +

Largely, yes, and it's worth being upfront about that rather than manufacturing artificial differences. Midwives are regulated by the same body as nurses — the NMC — so the registration fee, the £125 uniform and laundering flat rate, and the shoes/tights top-up allowances all work identically for both professions. Where midwifery genuinely diverges is professional body membership (RCM rather than RCN) and, most significantly, the scale and nature of mileage claims — community midwifery's home-visit model generates a different mileage pattern to most nursing roles, even where district nursing also involves significant driving. If you've already read a nursing tax relief guide, most of the mechanics here will be familiar; the mileage section is where midwifery has its own genuinely distinct story.

Do I need to claim the £125 uniform allowance separately from my NMC fee? +

They're separate claims but are almost always submitted together on the same form. The £125 figure is a flat-rate allowance for laundering your own uniform, worth £25 a year at basic rate tax or £50 at higher rate, regardless of what you actually spend on laundering. Your NMC fee relief is calculated on the real amount you've paid to the NMC, which is a different figure entirely. Both are typically claimed using form P87, and there's no reason not to include both if you're eligible for both — just don't assume claiming one automatically covers the other.

Is the NMC fee rise to £143 definitely happening, and does it apply to midwives too? +

The NMC council has approved the increase from £120 to £143 a year, effective from 1 October 2026, subject to the standard parliamentary approval process for the change to formally take effect — so treat it as highly likely rather than absolutely locked in until it's formally in force. It applies to midwives in exactly the same way as nurses, since both professions are regulated on the same NMC register and pay the same core annual registration fee. If you're budgeting your relief forward, plan for the higher figure from that date.

Can I claim tax relief on RCM membership the same way nurses claim RCN membership? +

Yes, in principle — RCM subscriptions work the same way as RCN subscriptions for tax purposes: relief on the actual amount you pay yourself, provided the RCM is treated as an HMRC-approved body for this purpose and you're not being reimbursed by your employer. RCM's own fee structure varies by membership category (newly qualified midwives pay a lower rate than established members) and changes periodically, so check RCM's current fee table for your own category rather than assuming a single figure applies to everyone — the amount you can claim relief on is whatever you're actually paying, not a generic headline number.

Why is mileage such a big deal for community midwives specifically? +

Community midwifery is structured around a caseload model where a midwife travels to patients — antenatal checks, postnatal visits, and home visits more generally — rather than patients travelling to a single fixed clinical base, in a similar way to how district nursing works but with its own visit pattern and scheduling. Where this involves substantial use of your own car for genuine business travel between visits (as opposed to a single commute to one fixed base), the mileage involved over a working year can be very large, and the tax relief available on the shortfall between HMRC's approved mileage rate and your trust's actual reimbursement rate can end up being worth more than every other claim in this guide combined for a high-mileage community midwife.

Does hospital-based midwifery have the same mileage claims as community midwifery? +

No, generally not to the same extent. A midwife working entirely within a single hospital site — labour ward, postnatal ward, or a fixed birth centre — doesn't generate the same kind of ongoing personal-car business mileage that a community caseload does, because their day-to-day travel is a normal commute to one fixed base rather than journeys between multiple patient locations. Mileage relief isn't unavailable to hospital-based midwives in principle (occasional travel to another site for training or cover could still count), but it's not the significant, recurring claim it is for community midwifery, which is why this guide singles community roles out specifically.

Can I claim for my mandatory NMC revalidation costs? +

Where you fund revalidation-related CPD yourself — courses, journal access, or tools that help you meet the NMC's practice hours and CPD requirements — and the activity is genuinely aimed at maintaining your existing registration rather than gaining a new qualification, this is generally treated more favourably by HMRC than costs of pursuing an entirely new qualification. The distinction that matters is maintaining what you already have (your current NMC registration) versus gaining something new (a different qualification altogether) — the former is the more defensible claim, the latter generally isn't deductible even if it would help your career.

If my trust reimburses some of my mileage, can I still claim anything extra? +

Potentially, yes — it depends on comparing what your trust actually pays you per mile against HMRC's approved mileage rate for the year, not on whether you're reimbursed at all. If your trust's rate is below HMRC's approved rate, you can generally claim relief on the difference for your genuine business miles. If your trust's rate happens to be above HMRC's rate, there's usually no extra relief to claim — and the excess over HMRC's rate can instead be treated as taxable. Because NHS mileage rates and HMRC's rate move independently and have sat on different sides of each other at different times, check the current relationship between the two rather than assuming either direction.

Where do I actually submit a midwife tax relief claim? +

Directly to HMRC, not through your trust or your NMC/RCM membership accounts — almost always using form P87, either through your personal tax account online or by post, or through Self Assessment if you already file one or your unreimbursed expenses exceed £2,500 in a tax year (realistic for a high-mileage community midwife once mileage relief is included). Your trust has no role in processing this specific claim, though your payslip and employment details may be useful supporting information to have ready.