No VAT For Certain Healthcare Professionals

HMRC has recently announced that certain healthcare professions’ services will be treated at zero rate for VAT from 1st April 2020. Such professionals are referred to as “relevant practitioners.” Those who are now included in the list are qualified prescribers and practitioners.
Just to further clarify, the “relevant practitioners” also include:
- community practitioner nurse prescribers
- nurse independent prescribers
- optometrists
- independent prescribers
- The pharmacist independent prescribers
- The physiotherapist independent prescribers
- The podiatrist independent prescribers
- supplementary prescribers, as defined in article 1(2) of the Prescription Only Medicines (Human Use) Order 1997(a)
- EA health professionals as defined in section 213 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012
The Services that are not exempt from VAT
The following services are taxable at the standard rate:
- health services not performed by an appropriately qualified and registered health professional, except when either directly supervised by such a person or provided within a hospital or within other state-regulated institutions providing healthcare
- services not aimed at the prevention, diagnosis, treatment or cure of a disease or the health disorder, such as paternity testing and the writing of articles for journals
- services directly supervised by a pharmacist
- general administrative services such as countersigning passport applications and providing character references
- supplies of health professional staff, except where they’re treated as being exempt from VAT under the nursing agencies’ concession.
If you are a health professional registered on the appropriate statutory register, such as a medical practitioner, dentist, nurse, osteopath, dietitian, etc., and ALL of the services that you provide to your patients pass HMRC’s second test for medical services, you are exempt from registration for VAT.
Next Step:
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