According to the information from the General Financial Directorate (you can find its full version here), a test for the COVID-19 performed not only upon a request issued by a doctor or a hygiene station, but also in other cases (e.g. testing upon request of a cross-border worker, tourist, employee, employer, an entrepreneurial person, a person with or without symptoms of the disease, for reasons of visiting a family member or for reasons of meeting another person etc.), i.e. upon request of a self-pay patient, is considered to be a medical service with the aim of protecting health or for prevention of diseases, which is exempted from tax without entitlement to tax deduction under article 58 of act no. 235/2004 Coll., on value added tax, as amended (hereinafter “the VAT act”).

This approach is applied to testing for the COVID-19 disease (antigen or PCR testing for the presence of the virus as well as testing for the presence of antibodies following infection) from 1 April 2021 and certain ambiguities in interpretation should thus be removed.

We would also like to point out that if the provider of testing for the COVID-19 disease does not issue a tax invoice from this date including tax, it will not be possible to apply entitlement to deduction of the tax in compliance with the VAT act on the side of the customer. Such an invoice should immediately be returned for correction.

Waiver of VAT on respirators, tests and vaccines - extension

Following its previous decisions on waiver of VAT for local supplies of diagnostic medical devices for in vitro testing for the COVID-19 disease and vaccines against this disease (detailed information can be found in the Financial Newsletter number 35/2020) and for local supplies of filtration half-masks, respirators or filters meeting the FFP2 and higher standard of protection (detailed information can be found in the Financial Newsletter number 16/2021), the Finance Ministry has decided, with effect from 14 April 2021, on the waiver of VAT for the above-mentioned goods in case they are obtained from another EU member state, or they are imported, if its purchase from another member state resulted in the obligation to report tax under article 25 of act no. 235/2004 Coll., on value added tax, as amended (hereinafter “the VAT act”), or its import established the duty to report or pay value added tax under article 23 of the VAT act.

The end of the reference period for the waiver of VAT on goods obtained from another EU member state, or imported, has been set identically as the waiver of VAT for local supplies, i.e. in the case of diagnostic devices and vaccines until 31 December 2022, in case of filtration half-masks, respirators and filters until 3 June 2021.

Detailed information on the extension of the waiver of VAT can be found in the Financial Newsletter number 18/2021.