{"id":198074,"date":"2025-10-13T22:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T22:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/198074\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T22:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T22:54:10","slug":"landmark-vat-ruling-on-cosmetic-services-provided-by-registered-healthcare-professionals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/198074\/","title":{"rendered":"Landmark VAT ruling on cosmetic services provided by registered healthcare professionals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-post-image ewww_webp\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"   src-img=\"https:\/\/www.monckton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MH-CMA-300x200.jpg\" src-webp=\"https:\/\/www.monckton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MH-CMA-300x200.jpg.webp\" srcset-webp=\"https:\/\/www.monckton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MH-CMA-300x200.jpg.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.monckton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MH-CMA-1125x750.jpg.webp 1125w, https:\/\/www.monckton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MH-CMA-768x512.jpg.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.monckton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MH-CMA-1536x1024.jpg.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.monckton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MH-CMA-600x400.jpg.webp 600w, https:\/\/www.monckton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MH-CMA.jpg.webp 2048w\" srcset-img=\"https:\/\/www.monckton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MH-CMA-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.monckton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MH-CMA-1125x750.jpg 1125w, https:\/\/www.monckton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MH-CMA-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.monckton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MH-CMA-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.monckton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MH-CMA-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.monckton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MH-CMA.jpg 2048w\" data-eio=\"j\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The Upper Tribunal allowed an appeal brought by Illuminate Skin Clinics Limited, a GMC-registered medical practice offering a range of aesthetic skin care and wellness treatments, including treatments for collagen loss, excess fat, Botox and dermal fillers. \u00a0The full decision can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.monckton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Illuminate-Skin-care-v-HMRC-Decision-Final.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Describing the appeal as giving rise to important and difficult points of law in what became a lead case, behind which a number of similar cases are stayed, the Upper Tribunal expressed the hope that its decision would provide much-needed guidance for other businesses in the sector. Different approaches had previously been taken by the FTT in various cases concerning the meaning of the term medical care in the context of cosmetic procedures \u2013 an issue that had not previously been considered by the Upper Tribunal.<\/p>\n<p>The appeal succeeded on the basis that the FTT had confined its assessment of the therapeutic purpose of the care provided by the Appellant within too narrow a compass, contrary to the relevant case law. The Upper Tribunal concluded that the FTT\u2019s expectations as to how a diagnosis might be evidenced was too high and over-generalised. It allowed the appeal, set aside the FTT\u2019s decision, and remitted it to the FTT, with clear guidance on the approach to be adopted on reconsideration: In summary, the supply in question must be made by a registered person and must have a therapeutic purpose. The assessment of a suitably qualified medical practitioner is significant in identifying that purpose. That practitioner is not obliged to elaborately record a diagnosis. Where a supply has both a therapeutic purpose and a cosmetic purpose, it is necessary to identify the principal purpose. That will involve a multi-factorial analysis which is likely to include consideration of the factors listed by the Upper Tribunal in its decision. \u00a0Paragraphs 104 and 105 record the approach to be adopted in future cases.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.monckton.com\/barrister\/melanie-hall-kc\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Melanie Hall KC<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.monckton.com\/barrister\/ciar-mcandrew\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ciar McAndrew<\/a>\u00a0of Monckton Chambers represented the Appellant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Upper Tribunal allowed an appeal brought by Illuminate Skin Clinics Limited, a GMC-registered medical practice offering a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-198074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}