Dental News
Autumn 2025
Welcome to our Autumn 2025 Dental News
In this issue we look at
Autumn Budget 2025
Revision to NHS England Urgent Dental Care Incentive scheme
GDC Annual Retention Fees increase
NHS Pension Annual Allowance Statements
Staff entertaining & trivial benefits
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
Christmas opening hours
Autumn Budget 2025
On 26 November 2025, Chancellor Rachel Reeves presented her second Budget to Parliament. After the tax-raising budget of 2024, it had been hoped by the government that widely applicable tax increases would not be required again in 2025. However, with economic pressures continuing to apply, tax increases have been announced and these will affect the vast majority of households.
The Budget contained measures that will affect both individual taxpayers and businesses. We have summarised the key changes in the pdf linked below. Please contact us if you wish to discuss any matters in more detail.
Headlines included:
- National Insurance (NI) and income tax thresholds were frozen for an extra three years beyond 2028. This will bring more people into higher rates of tax over time.
- Dividend income will see a 2 percentage point rise to the ordinary and upper tax rates from April 2026.
- Savings and property income tax rates will be increased by 2 percentage points from April 2027.
- From April 2027, the cash Individual Savings Accounts (ISA) savings limit will be capped at £12,000 a year for those aged under 65.
- A council tax surcharge is being introduced for properties worth more than £2 million.
- Any unused portion of the £1 million agricultural property relief and business property relief allowance will be transferable to spouses and civil partners from April 2026.
- A new excise duty will become payable on electric cars at 3p a mile for electric cars and 1.5p a mile for hybrid cars.
Revision to NHS England Urgent Dental Care Incentive scheme
NHS England have recently launched “The Urgent Dental Care Incentive scheme” with the aim to incentivise dental providers with General Dental Service (GDS) or Personal Dental Service (PDS) contracts to provide additional unscheduled care support to patients.
The scheme is due to run until 31 March 2026, and NHS England have recently extended the sign-up window to the new date of 19 December 2025, to encourage participation.
For those participating in the scheme, providers will be set an additional activity target (equivalent to 25% of their annual contract baseline activity) The target will be on top of their annual contracted UDA target.
If these targets are achieved, all urgent courses of treatment delivered above the 125% target, will be subject to receive an additional £50 multiplied by the additional activity target.
GDC Annual Retention Fees increase
The General Dental Council (GDC) have advised that the 2026 GDC Annual Retention fee (ARF) to maintain registration requirements will increase by approximately 12.5% from £621 to £698 for registered dentists and from £96 to £108 for dental care professionals. The increase follows a public consultation prior to the GDC recently agreeing it’s corporate strategy for the next three years.
NHS Pension Annual Allowance Statements
We are aware that 2024/25 NHS Pension Annual Allowance Statements are now being issued to members.
At the time of writing, there are continuing delays and NHS Pensions have not set an expected date as when all 2024/25 NHS Pension Annual Allowance Statements will be issued.
For members who are yet to receive a 2023/24 Annual Allowance statement, details of pension inputs for 2023/24 will be included on the 2024/25 Annual Allowance statement.
Please forward your 2024/25 NHS Pension Annual Allowance Statement to your contact at Humphrey & Co immediately upon receipt who will be able to advise further.
Staff entertaining & trivial benefits
With the Christmas season suddenly on the horizon, principals will be looking at ways to thank their staff for their contributions and hard work during the year. Whatever your plans are, you do need to be aware of the tax implications of entertaining and making such gifts.
Staff entertainment
As an employer providing social functions and parties for your employees, you have certain National Insurance and reporting obligations.
What you need to report and pay depends on:
- if it’s an annual event
- if it’s open to all of your employees
- if it costs more than £150 per head
- how many events you provide during the tax year
- whether the employee is a director, and how much they earn
You might not have to report anything to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) or pay tax and National Insurance. To be exempt, the party or similar social function must be all the following:
- £150 or less per head per year
- annual, such as a Christmas party or summer barbecue
- open to all your employees
Trivial benefits
You do not have to report a benefit for your employee if all of the following apply:
- it costs you £50 or less to provide (per employee)
- it is not cash or a voucher that can be exchanged for cash
- it is not a reward for their work or performance
- it is not in the terms of their contract
This is known as a ‘trivial benefit’. You do not need to pay tax or National Insurance or let HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) know.
The employee will have to pay tax on any benefits that do not meet all of the above criteria.
If a business provides a bottle of wine in a nice gift bag as a Christmas gift, for example, the value of the gift bag should be included in the value of the gift when deciding whether the total value exceeds the trivial benefits limit.
Staff Christmas Bonuses
Staff bonuses issued must be reported through payroll as these are subject to Income Tax and National Insurance.
Bonuses paid to staff must be included in payroll as additional earnings. If you do have plans to pay a bonus, you will need to speak to your payroll provider in advance of the payment to ensure that this is reported to HMRC at the time of payment.
As always, do feel free to contact us should you require advice.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax officially launches in April 2026.
The change is enormous and means that sole trader businesses and landlords will need to keep detailed digital accounting records and file digital quarterly figures with HMRC, plus the usual end of year Self-Assessment Tax Return.
This new mandatory regime for income tax reporting is likely to impact a significant proportion of our self-employed dentists and dental professional clients.
You can read more about HMRC’s MTD for ITSA initiative here:
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax - HMRC guide
As an update to our article in our previous dental e-news edition, letters are now being sent by HMRC to taxpayers who have submitted their 2024/25 tax return by August 2025 to let them know of the next steps.
If you are a Humphrey & Co client and receive correspondence from HMRC, you do not need to respond to it. We are now communicating and have commenced work on rolling out our solution to our dental associate clients who have submitted their Tax Return for 2024/25 and are mandated to register for Making Tax Digital from 1 April 2026 onwards. Our dental team are working hard behind the scenes to contact all remaining affected dental clients with details of our offering over the coming weeks and months.
In the meantime, if you do have any questions, please do feel free to contact your Humphrey & Co representative.
Christmas opening hours
The office will be closed from 11.30am on Tuesday 23 December 2025 reopening on Friday 2 January 2026.
Our Opening Times during the Christmas Period will be:-
| Monday | 22 December | Open |
| Tuesday | 23 December | Closed from 11.30am |
| Wednesday | 24 December | Closed |
| Thursday | 25 December | Closed |
| Friday | 26 December | Closed |
| Monday | 29 December | Closed |
| Tuesday | 30 December | Closed |
| Wednesday | 31 January | Closed |
| Thursday | 1 January | Closed |
| Friday | 2 January | Open |
On behalf of everyone at Humphrey & Co we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2026.
The information provided within our E-Newsletters are general in nature to raise awareness of certain issues that may affect our clients. It is not a substitute for specific advice in your own circumstances. You are recommended to obtain specific professional advice from a professional advisor before you take any action or refrain from action.
Whilst we endeavour to use reasonable efforts to furnish accurate, complete, reliable, error free and up-to-date information, we do not warrant that it is such. We disclaim all warranties.
The information can only provide an overview of the regulations and matters for consideration in force at the date of publication, and no action should be taken without consulting the detailed legislation or seeking professional advice.