VAT for hearing aid dispensers/opticians etc

[FruitFly]

I understand that for the [quasi]medical professions VAT is NOT chargeable for the consulting hours - but IS chargeable for any physical objects bought in and then passed on to the patient. So for example a pair of specs bought in at £5 might be sold to the patient for a total price [including a fitting fee] of say £101.75. VAT would be charged on a nominal saleprice of the specs, say £10. So the sales VAT would be just £1.75. The £11.75 "sale price" of the specs would NOT be shown on the customers invoice - this would just show £101.75, with no VAT showing. The bulk of the price would be a £90 consulting fee.Is my understanding correct - and is there a VAT brochure on this? [I phoned the Helpline and simply confused the helpdesk girl]
Thanks,
Richard

[paultaylor@vatease.c]

Determining the value of exempt and taxable supplies made by opticians, hearing aid dispensers and other similar professions is extremely complex. to make matters worse, a separate method must then be agreed to determine the amount of input VAT that can be recovered on associated costs.

These are not issues that con be covered easily in a format such as this.

Opticians have a trade body that can help. Alternatively VATease has one of the countries recognised experts in this field.

Regards

Paul Taylor
0121 778 4299
http://www.vatease.co.uk/