Industry
Accounting for doctors who earn from more than one place
Many doctors combine a salary, visiting fees from hospitals and their own consultations. Each stream leaves different records. This page is about you as an individual practitioner. For a clinic with staff, see the separate page.
Your income streams, and the record each one needs
| Stream | Keep | Check |
|---|---|---|
| Salary from a hospital | Salary certificate from the employer | Whether it agrees with your annual tax statement |
| Visiting consultant fees | Monthly statement from each hospital, showing gross, deductions and net | Bank receipt, TDS shown on your tax statement, and hospital deductions |
| Own OPD consultations | Register or software entries, with receipts | Cash and UPI against the day's list |
| Surgery or procedure shares | The hospital's sharing statement | Your agreed share against what was paid |
| Teaching, talks, medico-legal work | Fee letter and bank receipt | Whether tax was deducted |
Separating you from the practice
This is the most common weakness in a doctor's records. A single account for everything hides both income and expenses.
- Use one bank account for professional receipts and costs
- List shared costs, such as a car or a phone used partly for work, and ask how they may be treated
- Record equipment purchases separately from running costs
- Keep invoices for conferences, journals, professional indemnity insurance and medical council registration renewals
- If you employ a helper, keep payment records
Three tax questions to raise
- Is presumptive income open to you?
- Medical is a specified profession under section 62(4) of the Income-tax Act, 2025. Section 58 lets a resident individual or firm (not an LLP) treat 50% of receipts as income, or more if actually earned, up to ₹50 lakh, or ₹75 lakh if cash receipts are within 5%. Ask whether it suits you.
- Do you need to keep full accounts or face an audit?
- Specified professions must keep books under section 62. A tax audit applies generally above ₹50 lakh of receipts, and in some cases where you declare less than the presumptive figure.
- Is your TDS credit complete?
- Hospitals may deduct tax on fees. Compare your statement with the portal before you file.
GST: often exempt, not always
Health care services by a clinical establishment, an authorised medical practitioner or para-medics are exempt from GST (Notification 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate), entry 74). A doctor supplying only exempt services need not register (section 23 of the CGST Act). But "doctor" does not mean every receipt is exempt:
- Selling medicines, implants or consumables from your own clinic may be treated differently.
- Fees for things that are not health care, such as endorsements or some rentals, may be taxable.
- Hair transplants and cosmetic or plastic surgery fall outside the exemption, unless done to restore or reconstruct after a congenital defect, developmental abnormality, injury or trauma.
Deepak Mittal can review your full list of receipts with you.
A simple yearly routine
- Each month: file statements from hospitals, and note receipts and expenses.
- Each quarter: ask about advance tax, because income is not always taxed at source.
- Before filing: match all hospital statements with the portal's tax statements.
- After filing: keep the working file. Income shown by hospitals should be traceable to your return.
Questions to ask Deepak Mittal before work starts
- Have you worked with visiting consultants who have several hospitals?
- How will you track each hospital's statement against TDS?
- Will you tell me about advance tax during the year?
- How do you deal with the salary and professional income in the same return?
Running a clinic with staff and equipment? See accounting for clinics.
Sources checked, November 2026
- Notification 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate), consolidated (opens in a new tab), entry 74 and the definition of health care services; CGST Act, section 23 (opens in a new tab) (read at source, 10 November 2026)
- Income-tax Act, 2025, Gazette copy (opens in a new tab), sections 58, 62 and 63 (read at source)
Fees from several hospitals to match with your TDS?
Tell us your income streams, how many hospitals pay you, whether you also draw a salary, and any pending returns.
