Occupational Health Services

Most occupational health services are exempt from VAT because they fall within the ‘medical exemption.’

Pre-employment Medicals and VAT

1. If a job offer has been made and a medical is used to see if any accommodations should be made to support an existing medical condition, the service is exempt from VAT.
2. If a medical is undertaken to ascertain the most suitable location for work, the service is also exempt from VAT. This is because the medicals are being undertaken to protect the health of successful job applicants.
3. If ‘pre-employment’ medicals are used to enable an employer to decide about whether to recruit or not, they must attract VAT at the standard rate because they are not primarily concerned with the health of individual.
4. Medicals (including questionnaire-based assessments) where a job offer is made as being conditional on the outcome of the screening, they must attract VAT at the standard rate. This is because their purpose is to enable to an employer to decide, not to protect the health of the individual.

Post-employment Medicals (including health surveillance)

1. If a medical is conducted to make sure a person is medically well enough to undertake proposed work activities, the main purpose is the protection of health and the service is exempt from VAT.
2. The same applies if the purpose of the medical is to assess whether proposed work could adversely affect health or to make recommendations to help minimise risks. This applies to health surveillance programmes too, such as regular respiratory, skin or other medical checks; which are all exempt from VAT.