GP corporate giant Healius is trying to secure $60 million in tax deductions for lump-sum payments to GPs signing up to work in its clinics more than a decade ago.

Formerly known as Primary Health Care, the company has been historically known for its substantial six-figure cash payments to doctors who, in return, signed five-year contracts to work at the corporate.

The payments were ostensibly to “buy” a GP’s existing practice, but in 2015 the Australian Taxation Office sent shock waves through the profession when it ruled that, in many cases, there was no medical practice to buy, and that the payments should be considered inducements.

It meant, at the time, hundreds of GPs contracted with Primary faced hefty tax bills, some as much as $250,000.