Within the pharmaceutical industry, discounts are regularly given to health insurers afterwards. The Dutch Gelderland District Court recently ruled on the VAT consequences of such discounts on the basis of agreements with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. The Court’s judgment means that there is also a discount for VAT that leads to a VAT refund to the pharmaceutical company.
The case
The case of the Dutch Gelderland District Court concerns a biopharmaceutical company that supplies expensive medicines to pharmacists, pharmacies of hospitals and wholesalers. The procedure concerns the situation in which the biopharmaceutical company supplies medicines to the pharmacists, who then supply these medicines to the patient. For this, the pharmacy sends an invoice to the health insurer, who pays for these medicines directly. In the event of a deductible, the health insurer will recover this deductible from the patient.
See also
- C-462/16 – Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG – Discounts reduce the VAT value of pharmaceutical supplies/
- C-717/19 – Boehringer Ingelheim vs. HU – Reduction of the taxable amount – Agreement between pharmaceutical company and health insurer
- ECJ Cases – Focus on ”Discounts” (Art. 90)
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