Do I charge GST on supplements sold at the front desk?

A product the client takes home is a supply of its own. Goods are GST free only where they are a necessary part of providing the GST free health service and supplied at the same time and place as it, and are specific to treating that client or essential during that consultation, so ordinary retail stock is taxable. The canonical allied health template posts product sales to account 422 at GST on Income, with an item level override for a listed medical aid.

Which Xero accounts does a dietetics practice need?

Revenue accounts split by who pays, plus an account each for reports, supervision and training, product sales, cancellation fees and group sessions. On the balance sheet, one clearing account per settlement rail the practice actually uses. Practitioner and location go in tracking categories rather than in the chart, which keeps the account list short enough to read.

Is a written meal plan GST free?

It turns on who the plan was written for. The ATO's report test is that the report is GST free where a Medicare benefit is payable for it, or where it is an ordinary and natural part of the GST free service, so a plan written for the client as part of their treatment and a plan an insurer or employer asked for are not the same supply. The canonical allied health template gives a report billed to a private, plan managed or WorkCover client its own row at GST on Income, and leaves the override to the practice.

Do I need an income account for every dietitian?

The canonical allied health template does not add one. Practitioner sits in the first tracking category and location in the second, so revenue by dietitian is available in the reports without the chart growing a code per person, and the two tracking slots Xero allows stay used for the two dimensions that need them.

Templates

Dietetics chart of accounts for Xero

A dietetics practice needs revenue accounts split by who pays, not by service. Dietary is on the ATO's list of health services, so a consult that meets the ATO's three conditions is GST free whoever pays, and each payer gets an account of its own. Take home supplements and meal replacement stock get a taxable account, and each settlement rail gets a clearing account.

Key facts

Dietary is on the list: Dietary is one of the twenty one health services the ATO lists, and the ATO adds that a service must be one of the listed services and cannot just be similar to one of them¹
The three conditions: A listed health service, performed by a recognised health professional in that listed service or in defined circumstances their assistant, and generally accepted in that profession as necessary for the appropriate treatment of the recipient of the supply¹
Revenue accounts to start from: Eighteen revenue accounts in the canonical allied health template, split by who pays, with separate accounts for reports, supervision and training, product sales, cancellations, travel and group sessions⁷
Take home goods: Goods are GST free only where they are a necessary part of providing the GST free health service and supplied at the same time and place as it, and are either specific to treating that patient or essential for treating them during that consultation³
Where a product line posts: Account 422, products and equipment sales, taxable by default in the canonical allied health template with an item level override for a listed medical aid⁷
The medical aid test: Listed in schedule 3 to the GST Act or in the GST regulations, specifically designed for people with an illness or disability, and not widely used by people without one⁴
Employer funded work: The recipient of the supply is whoever engages the practitioner, and supplies of services by a health practitioner to another business are not usually GST free, so the template gives corporate contracts their own taxable account⁶
Settlement accounts: Ten clearing accounts on the principle of one per settlement rail rather than one per funder, held as bank type accounts and posted BAS excluded⁷
Practitioner and location: Tracking categories rather than accounts, because Xero allows two active categories and both are usually taken, which is why the funder lives in the account code⁷

What a dietetics chart of accounts has to hold

A dietetics practice bills the same appointment to different payers in the same week. A private client pays at the desk, a referred client is bulk billed, an NDIS participant is invoiced through a plan manager, an employer buys a workplace program, and someone leaves with a tin of formula. One sales account cannot say what happened, and an account per dietitian does not answer it either.

So the chart is built around four questions, three on the revenue side and one on the balance sheet.

Who paid, because the payer picks the revenue account a consult lands in and, for employer funded work, decides whether the line carries GST at all.
What was billed, because a report, a product and a cancellation fee are supplies of their own and outrank the funder's row.
Whether the line carried GST, which follows the first two rather than the invoice it happens to sit on.
Which deposit the money arrived in, which a clearing account answers rather than a revenue account.

Why a dietetics consult is GST free

Dietary is one of the twenty one health services the ATO lists, so a dietetics consult can be GST free without a Medicare benefit being payable for it. Three conditions have to hold together: it is a listed health service, it is performed by a recognised health professional in that listed service or, in defined circumstances, their assistant, and it is generally accepted in that profession as necessary for the appropriate treatment of the recipient.

The service must be one of the listed services and cannot just be similar to one of these services.¹

That line matters more in a nutrition practice than the list suggests, because a wellness package sold as nutrition coaching has to meet the three conditions itself rather than borrow a listed service's treatment. The ATO draws the same distinction for remedial massage, which is similar to physiotherapy and still not listed.

The second condition is the one to check locally. A recognised health professional is registered, permitted or approved under a state or territory law, or, where there is no such law, is a member of a professional association that relates to the listed service and has the same registration requirements nationally. Dietitians Australia administers the Accredited Practising Dietitian credential and keeps a register of holders; which limb a practice satisfies is a question for its adviser.

The third condition is appropriate treatment: assessing the client's health, working out a course of action to preserve, restore or improve their wellbeing, and delivering treatment the profession accepts as appropriate. The ATO says that includes preventative care and routine check ups.

Revenue accounts by who pays

The canonical allied health template splits revenue by payer rather than by practitioner, and names dietetics among the practices it was written for. Its own note says why the split sits in the account code: Xero allows two active tracking categories, practitioner and location usually take both, so the funder has nowhere else to live.

The rows a dietetics practice meets first, read from the canonical allied health template⁷

Who paid, or what was billed	Revenue account	Xero tax rate
Private	400 Clinical services, private patients	GST Free Income
Medicare bulk bill	401 Clinical services, Medicare	GST Free Income
Health fund	403 Clinical services, private health fund benefit	GST Free Income
NDIS plan managed	405 Clinical services, NDIS plan-managed	GST Free Income
WorkCover	407 Clinical services, WorkCover and workers compensation	GST Free Income
Employee assistance program	409 Employee assistance and corporate contracts	GST on Income
Private, reports	420 Reports, assessments and medico-legal	GST on Income
Private, products	422 Products and equipment sales	GST on Income

Read the table as two halves. The first six rows are funder defaults: five reach a GST free consult account under the funder's own code, and the employee assistance row is taxable, because there the employer is the recipient. The last two are item rows, and they change the rate as well as the account.

The rows the standing map holds

A map row is not a note in a policy document. It is the rule applied when a line comes across from the practice system, carrying the account, the tax rate and the reason together.

Plate 1Three consult rows and three item rows. An item with a row of its own outranks the funder's row and sets both the account and the rate.

Supplements and take home stock

A tin of formula, a tub of protein powder or a box of meal replacement sachets handed over at the desk is a supply of its own. Goods are GST free only where they are a necessary part of providing the GST free health service, supplied at the same time and place as it, and either specific to treating that patient or essential during that consultation. The ATO's worked example is the bandage: the one applied in the room follows the consult, the extra dressings the patient takes home do not.

One detail decides more dietetics lines than any other. The concession for goods completely used or consumed during a consultation is written for herbal medicine practitioners, Chinese herbal medicine practitioners and naturopaths. A dietetics practice works from the general goods rule instead, so a sachet opened and used in the consult and a carton sold at the desk are not the same supply.

So the template's default for the products category is account 422, products and equipment sales, at GST on Income, with an item level override for a listed medical aid. A medical aid is GST free on three conditions of its own, none about how clinical the item feels: it is listed in schedule 3 to the GST Act or the GST regulations, specifically designed for people with an illness or disability, and not widely used by people without one. Products and equipment runs that test item by item.

Where a written meal plan lands

A meal plan is the line a dietetics practice can get wrong in either direction, because the same document can be part of the treatment or a report someone else asked for. The template spells out a report row for private, NDIS plan managed and WorkCover clients, each on account 420, reports, assessments and medico legal, at GST on Income, and gives its reason plainly: a report is taxable regardless of who the client is, because taxability turns on the report's purpose and recipient rather than on the funder. A funder with no report row of its own keeps its funder default until the practice adds one.

The test behind that default is narrower than the consult test. The ATO states it for a medical report supplied by a medical practitioner: the report is GST free where a Medicare benefit is payable for it, or where it is an ordinary and natural part of the GST free service. Its example of a progress report an insurer asked for fails on both limbs.

So a plan written for the client as part of their own treatment and a plan an insurer or an employer asked for are not the same supply, even when the document looks identical. This page does not settle which side a particular plan falls on, and the ATO states that rule for medical reports rather than for a dietitian's plan. The practice runs the test when it approves the map. Reports and medico legal carries the question in full.

Workplace, corporate and employer funded work

Group education bought by an employer, a workplace wellness program or a pre employment assessment is a different supply from a consult, because the recipient changes. The ATO puts it in one line: the recipient of the supply is whoever engages the health practitioner, and supplies of services by a health practitioner to another business are not usually GST free. The template gives that its own account, 409, employee assistance and corporate contracts, at GST on Income.

The same clause decides the contractor leg. Where a dietitian contracts to the practice, that invoice is a supply to a business, and the practice's supply to the client is the one tested against the listed service conditions. The ATO says the outcome turns on who is contracting whom.

Clearing accounts, one per settlement rail

Revenue answers who was billed. It does not answer which deposit landed, and in a practice paid by Medicare, a plan manager and a card terminal those are different questions. The canonical allied health template holds ten clearing accounts, one per settlement rail rather than one per funder, as bank type accounts so a deposit can be matched as a transfer, and every clearing leg posts BAS excluded.

A dietetics practice usually turns on three or four and leaves the rest off. The balance in each one is money a funder has approved and the bank has not yet delivered, which a bookkeeper can check without opening the practice system. Set up a clearing account covers the mechanics.

Practitioner and location stay tracking categories

The chart does not grow a code per dietitian. The template puts practitioner in the first tracking slot and location in the second, and states the constraint that forces the choice: Xero allows only two active tracking categories, both are usually needed, so the funder lives in the account code instead of in a third slot that does not exist.

Bookkeepers writing for allied health practices ask for the same shape, and say what miscoding costs.

Miscoding a single Medicare rebate as taxable income, or treating a DVA invoice the same as a standard private invoice, can snowball into BAS errors, GST overclaims, and reconciliation headaches that take days to untangle at year end.⁹

What Ledger Map does with it

Ledger Map holds one standing map for the practice, approved before anything syncs. A dietetics line resolves to its account and its tax rate through that map, a deposit is posted as one balanced document set with the invoices underneath it, and one exact match is left in the bank feed for a person to accept.

Nothing on this page is a treatment Ledger Map picked. The accounts, the rates and the reasons come from the canonical template the practice starts from, and a line the map cannot resolve becomes a question with the options laid out rather than a silent posting. How it works shows the map and the approval step.

Questions

Is a dietitian's consultation GST free in Australia?
Dietary is one of the health services the ATO lists, so a consult can be GST free without a Medicare benefit being payable for it. Three conditions have to hold together: it is a listed health service, it is performed by a recognised health professional in that listed service, and it is generally accepted in that profession as necessary for the appropriate treatment of the recipient of the supply.
Do I charge GST on supplements sold at the front desk?
A product the client takes home is a supply of its own. Goods are GST free only where they are a necessary part of providing the GST free health service and supplied at the same time and place as it, and are specific to treating that client or essential during that consultation, so ordinary retail stock is taxable. The canonical allied health template posts product sales to account 422 at GST on Income, with an item level override for a listed medical aid.
Which Xero accounts does a dietetics practice need?
Revenue accounts split by who pays, plus an account each for reports, supervision and training, product sales, cancellation fees and group sessions. On the balance sheet, one clearing account per settlement rail the practice actually uses. Practitioner and location go in tracking categories rather than in the chart, which keeps the account list short enough to read.
Is a written meal plan GST free?
It turns on who the plan was written for. The ATO's report test is that the report is GST free where a Medicare benefit is payable for it, or where it is an ordinary and natural part of the GST free service, so a plan written for the client as part of their treatment and a plan an insurer or employer asked for are not the same supply. The canonical allied health template gives a report billed to a private, plan managed or WorkCover client its own row at GST on Income, and leaves the override to the practice.
Do I need an income account for every dietitian?
The canonical allied health template does not add one. Practitioner sits in the first tracking category and location in the second, so revenue by dietitian is available in the reports without the chart growing a code per person, and the two tracking slots Xero allows stay used for the two dimensions that need them.

Sources

Open questions

Whether a written meal plan billed as its own item is part of the GST free consult or a separate supply. The ATO states the report test for a medical report supplied by a medical practitioner, and the canonical allied health template gives a report its own taxable row, so the extension to a dietitian's plan is reasoning rather than a stated rule.
Whether a particular nutrition product is GST free food under the food rules, which is a different provision from the health rules this page works through. Not settled here.
Whether a dietitian is a recognised health professional through a state or territory law or through the professional association limb. The ATO sets out both limbs, and the registration position for dietetics could not be confirmed from a primary source when this page was written, so the page states the test and not the conclusion.
No search results snapshot was captured for this query, so the questions below were written from the sources and the query intent rather than from a captured People also ask set. They should be recut against a capture before this page is published.

GST and health, other health services
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
primary
GST and health, appropriate treatment
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
primary
GST and health, goods supplied as part of a GST free health service
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
primary
GST and health, medical aids and appliances
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 8 Oct 2025.
primary
GST and health, medical services
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
primary
GST and health, recipient of the supply
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
primary
Allied health by funding source, the canonical template
Ledger Map. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026.
primary
Is my psychology or allied health service GST free?
Allied Health Accounting. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 18 Sep 2024.
secondary
Bookkeeper for physio and allied health practices
True Tally. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 1 Jul 2026.
secondary
Dietitians Australia, the Accredited Practising Dietitian credential
Dietitians Australia. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026.
secondary

Review

Last reviewed 3 Sep 2026 by Shane

General information for Australian allied health practices, not tax advice. Confirm a treatment with your BAS agent or accountant before you post it.

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