VAT on vet bills, bah :(

[sarahann1]

Just need a wee rant, I know this won't change, but I'm hoping this will help me feel better!

Smarts had the vet out twice for a bashed eye, first call out was Sunday visit, total bill £231.60, £38.60 of which is VAT!! Not having a go at my vets at all, his charges are fairly sensible, the Government are getting a stern evil stare though!

Bah!!!

 

[fatpiggy]

Just need a wee rant, I know this won't change, but I'm hoping this will help me feel better!

Smarts had the vet out twice for a bashed eye, first call out was Sunday visit, total bill £231.60, £38.60 of which is VAT!! Not having a go at my vets at all, his charges are fairly sensible, the Government are getting a stern evil stare though!

Bah!!!

Tell me about it! I had to fork out around £400 for drugs to the vet every month for many years - if I could have claimed the VAT back and on my petrol too, 60 miles a day 7 days a week then I wouldn't have have to live on £10 a week. Of course if Brussels hadn't brought in Cascade, I wouldn't have been giving the vet £400 either, more like £50 a month. Bah, too!

 

[paulineh]

Don't get me started on Vets bills. When drugs etc are bought the Vets have to pay VAT and I can not see why we should then have to pay further VAT on the same things. The bigger the bill the more VAT you give the Vets and then the Vets claim back any VAT they have paid themselves.

It is the same as the cost of drugs etc that you buy from the Vets ,which is far more expensive than you can buy of the internet. If we all had a prescription from the Vets and then bought what we needed over the internet, then I am sure Vets would have to bring their prices down.

It is also like Insurance ,we pay high fees to them but they will argue that the problem on the Left leg has something to do with the right leg, even if it has nothef what so ever to. If a Vet writes in a report that the horse was bilaterally lame even if it was only the right leg and the other had some Mud Fever on it, hence looking lame on that leg (left) will an insurance company pay out Oh No.

That is my Rant about Vets etc

 

[Jsye]

I too am going to join in the vet rant! Having taken me 2 weeks to get a written prescription out to me after numerous phone calls requesting it each time to mithered to buy the medication from them instead for double the price I can buy it for online.

When they finally sent out my 'prescription' they sent out the tablets instead of written prescription and had the bloody cheek to charge me £7.15 postage because they'd 'forgotten' for 2 weeks to do my prescription so had to send it special delivery.

Plus the VAT on top for the tablets which i swiftly returned to them! Paying for horse meds makes me appreciate the NHS a whole lot more!

 

[JennBags]

Paulineh, you don't seem to understand how VAT works at all. Its not a money-making scheme for the vets! Firstly, VAT is applied to "luxuries" not necessities. Having horses and other pets are a luxury.

If the vet buys the drugs at, say, £10+VAT £2, and applies a 10% mark-up, they sell to you for £11+VAT £2.20. They then pay the £2.20 over to HMRC and reclaim the £2. Net cash in/out flow is equal. Vets profit £1. Cost to you £13.20

If the vet wasn't VAT-registered (unlikely due to turnover registration thresholds) then the cost of the same drug would be £12. 10% markup would mean the cost to you would be £13.20, the same. Vet makes slightly more profit, but as he can't reclaim VAT on other expenditure (telephones, stationery, computer equipment, motor fuel & repairs, rent, electricity, gas etc etc etc) then he probably makes less profit; and in reality would have to apply more than a 10% markup to cover these additional costs, so the cost to you would probably end be up being higher than the £13.20.

Ooh, I know...lets abolish VAT instead. If we do that, we'd have to seriously increase income tax, national insurance, corporation tax, inheritance tax, capital gains tax, and god knows what else, in order to compensate.

Yes, it's a pain having to pay taxes, but as the famous saying goes...only 2 things are certain in this life: death and taxes.