Country-specific: Ireland

Tax Appeals Commission determinations (32TACD2022 & 33TACD2022) on VAT exemption for professional medical care services

Two recent Tax Appeals Commission (TAC) determinations (32TACD2022 & 33TACD2022) considered the VAT exemption for professional medical care services. In both cases the TAC determined that the Revenue Commissioners had adopted an overly narrow interpretation of the exemption at issue by interpreting the phrase "recognised as such by the Department of Health and Children" (as used in Irish VAT legislation) to mean that the professional medical care services must be provided by a member of a designated profession within the meaning of the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 in order to benefit from the VAT exemption. The TAC was willing to accept other evidence put forward, in support of the contention that the services in question were in fact recognised by the Department of Health for the purpose of the VAT exemption. Included within the evidence accepted by the TAC was the fact that the Health Service Executive (a statutory body under the Department of Health) referred patients for the medical services in question and paid the Appellant for providing those services. In contrast the fact that medical doctors may have referred patients for the medical service or the fact that certain medical insurers would cover the cost of the service were both considered as being insufficient evidence for a finding that the services were recognised by the Department of Health. Both TAC determinations referenced the approach to statutory interpretation of tax statutes as recently endorsed by the Irish Supreme Court in Bookfinders Ltd v Revenue Commissioners [2020] IESC 60.