Finance (No.2) Act 2023
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Medical practitioners operating in partnership | ||
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38. The Principal Act is amended, in Part 43, by the insertion of the following section after section 1008: | ||
“1008A. (1) In this section— | ||
‘enactment’ means a statute or an instrument made under a power conferred by statute; | ||
‘medical partnership’ means a partnership— | ||
(a) all of the partners of which are individuals who are medical practitioners, and | ||
(b) that is governed by a partnership agreement; | ||
‘medical practitioner’ has the same meaning as in the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 ; | ||
‘partnership agreement’ means any valid written agreement of the partners governed by the law of the State and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the State as to the affairs of a partnership and the conduct of its business as may be amended, supplemented or restated from time to time; | ||
‘relevant income’ means all amounts, in respect of relevant medical services, paid to, or for the benefit of, a relevant medical services provider, by the Health Service Executive; | ||
‘relevant medical services’ means services provided by a medical practitioner pursuant to— | ||
(a) regulations made under sections 5 and 29 of the Health Act 1947 , | ||
(b) section 58 of the Health Act 1970 , | ||
(c) sections 62 and 63 of the Health Act 1970 , | ||
(d) section 62A of the Health Act 1970 , | ||
(e) section 67E of the Health Act 1970 , | ||
(f) section 70 of the Health Act 1970 , | ||
(g) orders made under section 75A of the Health Act 1970 , | ||
(h) regulations made under section 75B of the Health Act 1970 , | ||
(i) the Health (Amendment) Act 1996 , | ||
(j) the Mental Health Act 2001 , | ||
(k) the Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Act 2015 , | ||
(l) the Misuse of Drugs Acts 1977 to 2017, | ||
(m) the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act 2023 , | ||
(n) Regulation (EC) No. 883/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 20047 on the coordination of social security systems, | ||
(o) the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part, done at Brussels and London on 30 December 20208 , and | ||
(p) such other provisions of any other enactment as the Minister for Finance may by order prescribe; | ||
‘relevant medical services provider’ means a medical practitioner with whom the Health Service Executive has entered into a contract to provide relevant medical services; | ||
‘relevant payment’ has the same meaning as in section 520(1). | ||
(2) (a) Where services are provided by medical practitioners which the Minister for Finance, following consultation with the Minister for Health, determines it would be appropriate to treat as relevant medical services for the purposes of this section, then, for those purposes, the Minister for Finance may, by order, prescribe the provisions of the enactment pursuant to which those services are provided. | ||
(b) Every order made by the Minister for Finance under paragraph (a) shall be laid before Dáil Éireann as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the order is passed by Dáil Éireann within the next 21 days on which Dáil Éireann has sat after the order is laid before it, the order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder. | ||
(3) This section shall apply to a medical partnership where— | ||
(a) one, or more than one, partner in the medical partnership is a relevant medical services provider, and | ||
(b) relevant medical services in respect of which one, or more than one, partner in the medical partnership is a relevant medical services provider are ordinarily provided by any medical practitioner who is a partner in, or employed by, that medical partnership. | ||
(4) (a) A medical partnership to which this section applies and a relevant medical services provider who is a partner in the medical partnership may jointly elect to treat such proportion of the relevant income of that relevant medical services provider for the year of assessment as relates to relevant medical services that are, or may be, provided by any medical practitioner who is a partner in, or employed by, that medical partnership as income of that medical partnership for income tax purposes. | ||
(b) The election made under paragraph (a) shall be in such form and manner as may be specified by the Revenue Commissioners. | ||
(5) Where an election is made under subsection (4)— | ||
(a) for the purpose of section 1008, in calculating the amount of the profits or gains of the medical partnership concerned for a year of assessment, relevant income of a relevant medical services provider to whom the election relates, and any expenses laid out or expended for the purpose of earning that relevant income shall, subject to the provisions of the Tax Acts, be treated as if that relevant income was earned and those expenses were laid out or expended by that medical partnership in the course of its partnership trade, | ||
(b) for the purposes of section 529A, each payment by the Health Service Executive to a relevant medical services provider to whom the election relates, in respect of relevant medical services, which is comprised within relevant income to which the election relates, shall be treated as— | ||
(i) a relevant payment to the medical partnership concerned, and | ||
(ii) a payment in respect of a professional service that is provided in the conduct of the trade or profession of that medical partnership, | ||
(c) the relevant medical services provider to whom the election relates shall furnish the tax number (within the meaning of section 524(2)) of the medical partnership concerned to the Health Service Executive and section 524 shall apply as if, in relation to each relevant payment by the Health Service Executive to that relevant medical services provider, in respect of relevant medical services, which is comprised within relevant income to which the election relates, that medical partnership is the specified person (within the meaning of section 520), | ||
(d) the precedent partner of the medical partnership concerned shall include details of the relevant income to which the election relates in the return required to be delivered by that partner under section 880 for the relevant year of assessment, and | ||
(e) the relevant medical services provider to whom the election relates shall, in the return required to be delivered by him or her under section 959I for a year of assessment— | ||
(i) confirm that an election under this section has been made in respect of the year of assessment, and | ||
(ii) provide the name of the medical partnership to which the election relates.”. | ||