VATHLT2590 - Wholly performed or directly supervised: Legal background

EU law, which applied to the UK until the UK left the EU, required Member States to exempt from VAT the supply of medical care by the medical professions, but it allowed Member States to define the medical professions as they saw fit. The UK defined the medical professions by reference to the statutory medical registers and continues to use this definition after leaving the EU.

Note 2 to Group 7 allows corporate bodies, partnerships and others to exempt supplies wholly performed or directly supervised by a person who is registered or enrolled in any of the statutory healthcare registers except for the register of dispensers of hearing aids or the register of persons employing such dispensers.

Note (2A) allows corporate bodies, partnerships and others to exempt supplies wholly performed by pharmacists, but not supplies directly supervised by pharmacists.