Tax Bear Hits Plastic Surgery Clinics: VAT Neglect & Significant Stumps
The tax administration has begun to review the activities of the clinics of plastic surgery. Surgeons believe that the taxpayer has gone too far.
The tax administration has imposed a significant penalty for private plastic surgery clinics for neglecting VAT.
Plastic surgery measures are exempt from VAT if they have a medical basis. The VAT percentage of aesthetic or appearance cuts is 25.5.
According to the Finnish Plastic Surgery Association, the taxpayer tightened last year’s interpretation of what measures were tax -free and which are not. Since then, clinics have received large penalty fees, up to almost EUR 100 thousand.
– The taxpayer has begun to conduct follow -up inspections and question the decisions made by doctors about whether to take measures for medical reasons, says the chairman of the association Antti Mikkola.
According to Mikkola, the taxpayer decisions are difficult to anticipate and they also depend on who does tax checks. Also The tax administration admits to themselvesthat the boundary is not always clear.
– The problem is also that VAT only applies to plastic surgeons, although similar measures are taken by others, says Mikkola.
The Plastic Surgeons Association criticized new policies in a statement sent to the Tax Administration in May.
The taxpayer has requested patient information
Plastic surgeons consider it problematic that tax inspectors make assessments of the medical grounds. In the past, the taxpayer was enough for the clinics assessment.
– They do not have medical education to evaluate the reason why measures are taken, says Mikkola.
According to Mikkola, the Tax Administration has even requested patient records and photos from the clinics. According to the taxpayer, they may be disclosed as long as the patient’s identifying information has been removed. The clinics disagree with this too. According to YLE, at least some doctors have refused to disclose the information.
– We do not want patients’ intimate areas to end up on the taxpayer table. We would break the obligation of confidentiality, says Mikkola.
Taxpayer: It is up to the customer to be able to submit a reliable report
The tax administration does not directly admit that it, like the plastic surgeons described by plastic surgeons, has requested patient reports and photos. However, according to it, customers must be able to provide a reliable report on VAT -free sales.
– To this end, clients may have been proposed that they can verify the existence of medical criteria, for example, from patient reports, the tax administration comments to Yle via email.
The taxpayer does not have more detailed statistics specifically on inspections and penalty fees for aesthetic surgery. However, in recent years, the social and health care sector has been the subject of special supervision. Between 2024 and 2025, taxes of EUR 9 million have been charged, mainly VAT.
Plastic surgeons warn that an allegedly tightened tax line of the tax administration may be reflected to customers as a rise in prices. Many customers are already traveling abroad for cheaper measures.
For example, in the Baltic countries, aesthetic surgery is exempt from VAT. Another favorite destination for beauty tourists is Turkey, where One Finnish customer recently died after surgery.
Previously signs of tax evasion
In the field of plastic surgery, there have been some signs of a deliberate VAT cycle.
YLE’s MOT program explored the industry’s drawbacks in the 2023 episode The ugly side of beauty surgery.
In the case of a single plastic surgeon admitted himself to formulate patient reports on clinic guidance so that the operation would be easier to sell VAT-free.
At that time, the tax administration also reported a clinic, which had classified all breast enlargement cuts as medically justified.
Antti Mikkola of the Plastic Surgery Association does not recognize that there is a problem like the one described, at least not at the moment.
– I can’t see that this would be a big problem in our field.