Limited company

- Q: We are a small GMS practice. Can you tell us the advantages and disadvantages of forming a limited company?

Seniority payments

- Q: We are a PMS practice. If the seniority payments of all the partners were included in the budget at the beginning of the contract, will any annual increase for the subsequent years be added to the budget or not? The PMS contract manager at the PCT has advised us that there will be no automatic annual increase in the seniority allowance in PMS practices' budgets. This means that no annual increase has been occurring for the past few years since the new way of calculating seniority pay was applied.

Surgery premises shares

- Q: I have become a GP partner. The senior partner is due to retire and I have the option of buying her share of the property. At present, all the partners have individual mortgages through one lender. I was planning to take a loan from my parents to fund the purchase and repay them over a defined period. Would this affect the rent reimbursement we receive and can I claim tax relief on the interest payments on such a loan? How do I set up a loan contract that would fulfil any legal and tax requirements?

Tax Allowances

- Q: Can you tell me which types of expenditure on our new surgery building can be set off against tax?

Seniority pay

- Q: A former partner who retired on 31 March 2011 is claiming they are entitled to receive seniority pay for the quarter to 30 June 2011 as it is paid three months in arrears. Is it correct that seniority pay relates to the quarter in which it is received?