How to Become a Locum Pharmacist

You may also find our pages on 'How to Become a Locum Doctor' and 'Locum Doctors - Advantages and Disadvantages of going limited' helpful.

As the popularity of the 100-hour pharmacy contract increases, there are more and more vacancies for pharmacists of all types and even more demand for locum pharmacists. And this requirement is further increased by the new Responsible Pharmacist legislation which will be coming into effect in October 2009. All of which means that you might well be thinking about moving from full time employment and becoming a locum instead.

This more flexible arrangement means that, to a certain extent, you can choose when, where and for how long you work - and subsequently, how much holiday you can take! You are also free from internal politics and can often find yourself in situations where you are learning new things and gaining valuable experience of different pharmacy environments while you work. There is also the obvious benefit of increasing your take home pay. In fact our freelancer take home pay calculator shows you how much you can expect to take home as a freelancer.

But the decision to become a locum brings with it a whole range of other questions, as it is very different from being employed as a pharmacist, and there are many other factors to consider. 

Many freelance pharmacists start off doing a little freelance work in their spare time whilst still holding onto a full time job. If you’re doing this or thinking of doing this it’s probably a good idea to have a chat with an accountant as there may be tax implications you should be considering and maybe also allowances you aren't taking advantage of.

Having made the decision to give it a go, whether full or part time and whether to set up as a sole trader or limited company, you’re going to need a wide range of tax and accountancy advice and support in the early days when setting up as a freelancer.

The most daunting thing about going freelancing for most people is the thought of having to engage with an accountant. At first glance it’s easy, you go down to your local high street accountant who quotes you anything from £250 - £600 plus VAT to do your end of year accounts for you.

This sounds great, however what happens if you want to speak to your accountant for advice throughout the year on things like:

• Expenses
• Tax allowances
• Take home pay
• How much you should put aside for your tax bill
• Should you register for the Flat Rate VAT scheme
• Would going limited be beneficial
• If you have a life plan and wish to go travelling what’s the most tax efficient way to run your business.

Each time you pick up the phone it is likely you will get charged, in fact every time your accountant sends you a letter you may charged and you may even get charged if you call to query your invoice! So by the end of the year you could easily be looking at a bill of over £1,000. 

Easy Accountancy charge a fixed fee of only £30 VAT a month.

We don’t want our clients to be scared to contact us and potentially lose out on valuable tax saving advice, that's why we only charge a fixed fee of £30 VAT a month. It’s important when you first start out freelancing that you set your business up in the best way possible. As a start up you’ll probably have loads of questions and will really appreciate the fact you can call your accountant as many times as you like without the fear of racking up large bills.