Medical Device Tax Ordinance
This ordinance serves to implement the power to issue ordinances under Section 12a(2) of the Health and Food Safety Act. It regulates the detailed modalities of the levy, the parties obliged to pay the levy, details of the collection procedure and the time of payment.
The obligation to pay the medical device levy arises for the natural or legal person who supplies the final consumer. For the purposes of this Ordinance, the end user is anyone who does not sell or pass on medical devices in return for payment, whether they are acquired for personal use by consumers, for example, or whether they are used as part of a medical treatment.
If medical devices of different classes, IVDs or implantable medical devices are supplied by persons liable to pay the levy, the individual applicable levies are not added together, but only the highest flat-rate amount for the applicable litera according to the annex is to be paid.The levy obligation according to this ordinance arises for the first time for the year 2011 and is to be paid by the person liable to pay the levy to the Federal Office for Safety in Health Care by June 30, 2012. The deadline for payment of the medical device levy is June 30 of the following year in which the levy is due. The levy for 2012 must therefore be paid by 30.06.2013.
In the legally binding implementation of this ordinance authorization, an attempt was made, within the framework of the legal mandate, to set the amount of the levy in an economically justifiable manner and, in particular, to keep the administrative expense for those liable to pay the levy as low as possible. This is particularly the case since the administrative expense of a turnover-based self-calculation does not appear justifiable in relation to the amount of the levy. In the interest of an economical use of resources, it was therefore decided against a turnover-based medical device levy and in favor of an economically justifiable annual flat rate. Comments made during the review process that the amount of the levy represents a "burden" for small companies were taken into account to the extent that a so-called "threshold value" was introduced. The levy only has to be paid if the amount of the levy is less than one percent in relation to the sales revenue from medical devices. This ensures that the "corner grocer" who occasionally sells a clinical thermometer or a plaster is not subject to the levy.
Further information:
Medical Device Dispensing Ordinance
