In the healthcare services industry, it is now common for some practitioners to operate from healthcare centres run by third parties. This frequently occurs without any stated partnership or employment relationship between the third party and the practitioner.
The third parties that run these centres generally encourage practitioners to start work or continue to work from their centres. They may offer lump sum payments for this purpose and there is nothing wrong with that. Our concerns relate to the tax treatment of the lump sum payments by the practitioner.
Our concerns may affect you if your arrangements have most or all of the following features:
A healthcare centre operator provides you with fully equipped consulting rooms, administrative services, clerical staff and facilities as necessary for you to provide healthcare services. The agreements entered into typically state that there is no employment relationship between you and the operator.
In return for these facilities and services, you are required to pay the operator an agreed percentage of the receipts for the healthcare services you provide.
You are required to provide healthcare services from the healthcare centre for an agreed minimum period of time, minimum weekly working hours and working patterns.
You are required to use your best endeavours to grow and promote the interests of the healthcare centre.
The operator pays you a lump sum
it is described as being consideration for a restraint imposed, for goodwill, for other terms or conditions, or for a combination of the three
the payment is ordinarily made when you enter into the agreement or start to provide healthcare services to patients from the healthcare centre (whichever is the later) or whenever the agreements relating to the provision of healthcare services are renewed.
Whilst these are common features, any other arrangements that relate to a lump sum payment for your ongoing provision of healthcare services from a medical centre may still be of concern to us.
About Authors : Swan Partners is a progressive service provider dedicated in providing high quality tax consultancy, accountant in victoria park, bookkeeping service in perth, BAS lodgement service in perth and accounting services to individuals, sole-traders, partnerships, trusts, and companies.
No comments:
Post a Comment