Telephone consulting free of sales tax
Value added tax
Medical treatments in the field of human medicine are exempt from sales tax (§ 4 No. 14 letter a sentence 1 Umsatzsteuergesetz/UStG). This undoubtedly includes medical services of all kinds. With regard to consulting services via a so-called health telephone for the purpose of providing medical advice to the insured persons of a health insurance company, it was previously disputed whether these could be considered VAT-exempt medical treatment services.
Ruling of the ECJ
In the "X-GmbH" ruling of March 5, 2020 (Case No. C 48/19), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) took the view that telephone consultation services can, under certain conditions, be considered "curative treatments in the field of human medicine" within the meaning of Art. 132 (1) lit. c of the Value Added Tax System Directive (VAT Directive). The latter is to be affirmed if the telephone consultation pursues a therapeutic purpose. Whether this is the case must be examined in each individual case. In the aforementioned ruling, the ECJ did not consider the mere provision of information on illnesses or therapies to be telephone advice that pursues a therapeutic purpose.
Follow-up decision of the BFH
In the follow-up decision of 23.9.2020 (Ref.- XI R 6/20 XI R 19/15) based on the aforementioned ECJ decision, the Federal Fiscal Court (BFH) overturned the first-instance ruling (Düsseldorf Fiscal Court of 14.8.2015, 1 K 1570/14) and referred it back for further findings. In its decision, the BFH considered, among other things, telephone consultations as part of patient support programs to be curative treatments in the field of human medicine, insofar as these demonstrably fulfill a therapeutic purpose as patient training courses as part of supplementary rehabilitation services.
Status: August 30, 2021
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