Hospital and Medical Care by Commercial Hospitals under EU VAT

Under EU VAT law, hospital care and medical care undertaken by public hospitals are exempt from VAT but Member States have the power to exclude commercial private hospitals from that exemption, which may, in view of other concessions laid down by the VAT Directive, give rise to a complex situation not only for medical care but also for hospital care provided by commercial hospitals whose services are not covered by the exemption. In this article, the authors discuss the complexity of that situation.