TMD Gesellschaft für transfusionsmedizinische Dienste mbH v Finanzamt Kassel II – Hofgeismar

In TMD Gesellschaft für transfusionsmedizinische Dienste mbH v Finanzamt Kassel II – Hofgeismar (Case C-412/15) (2 June 2016) the advocate general (AG) considered that supplies of blood plasma were exempt so that any related input tax was not recoverable.

TMD a German company operated a blood donor centre and it supplied blood plasma for the purpose of manufacturing medicinal products to a Swiss company. The German tax authorities had refused deductions of input tax on these supplies on the ground that they were exempt from tax both as intra-EU supplies and as supplies of blood.

The AG considered that ‘blood’ included plasma for the purpose of the Principal VAT Directive art 132(1) since the purpose of the exemption was to limit increases in costs of health-related treatments which involved the supply of parts of or products derived from the human body. The AG added...