ECU MEMBER ASSOCIATION IN SPAIN WINS VAT EXEMPTION

After intensive lobbying by the ECU member association Asociación Española de Quiropráctica (AEQ) and building upon the judgement of the European Court of Justice obtained by the Belgian Chiropractors’ Union, the Spanish tax authorities have issued the following binding ruling:

“The (European) Court of Justice indicates that, regarding the application of the (VAT) exemption to the practice of Chiropractic and Osteopathy, this exemption is not conditioned by the fact that the qualification for the practice of the profession is included among the healthcare professions regulated by the legislation of the Member State. However, the Court indicates that it is necessary for the professionals who want to apply for the exemption to possess the required professional qualifications”.

“It can be pointed out that those professionals (AEQ members) hold professional qualifications required for the application of the (VAT) exemption”.

This is excellent news for AEQ members who publicly announced their espousal of an evidence based approach to chiropractic in November 2018.  Guillermo Busto, President of the AEQ comments:

“I hope this decision of the Spanish Department of Taxation is useful for all the ECU associations that are still fighting for VAT exemption.”

I would like to thank the AEQ Council and its legal team for all their hard work during the last months.  I would also like to thank the European Chiropractors’ Union for their support and assistance and the Belgian Chiropractors’ Union for their perseverance in obtaining the much needed verdict from the European Court of Justice.”