Verdict MPU preparation is not a cure

Finanzgericht Münster: Benefits are subject to VAT
If a psychotherapist prepares a traffic offender for her medical-psychological examination (MPU), sales tax is due for this service. For traffic therapeutic services aiming to pass the MPU and thus regain the driver's license do not constitute tax-free medical treatment, the Financial Court of Münster ruled in a ruling announced on Monday, October 16, 2017 (Ref .: 15 K 3562/14 U).

MPU no curative treatment. (Image: Wrangler / fotolia.com)

The plaintiff is a licensed psychological psychotherapist and, among other things, carries out traffic-therapeutic treatments in preparation for the MPU, also popularly known as the "idiot test". On his homepage, the psychotherapist advertised with statements such as "The quick way back to the driver's license" and with a "non-binding advice" regarding the chances of success of the MPU.

When the tax office found in an external audit that the plaintiff had not paid sales tax for the preparatory courses, the latter should pay 3,000 euros.

The psychotherapist said that there is no VAT. It concerns with the traffic psychological treatments around tax-free "curative treatments". Ultimately, the therapist's approach is not the regaining of the license, but the cure of a disease.

As a licensed psychological psychotherapist, he was authorized to diagnose mental illnesses on his own. Thus, in an alcohol-related conspicuousness in the road not only abstinence is required, but also a medical-psychological assessment, which fundamentally worked up this alcohol problem. Especially here it is necessary that the client undergoes therapy.

After all, his treatments are a measure that increases road safety. Such a "preventive health protection" must be tax-exempt.

However, in its judgment of 12 September 2017, the Finanzgericht stated that the transport therapeutic services for regaining the license are not a medical treatment. A VAT exemption would therefore not come into question. As a curative treatment, only those activities are to be considered "which are made for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and - as far as possible - the cure of diseases".

This is not the main aim of the plaintiff. Rather, it's about getting your driver's license back. This is also clear from the appearance of the psychotherapist on his homepage. From the treatment of diseases there was no question. The clients would then not have borne the treatment costs themselves, but claimed by doctors and funded by the health insurance therapies. fle