Do doctors need to charge GST?

Not on medical services. A service a Medicare benefit is payable for is GST free, and so is a service generally accepted in the profession as necessary for the appropriate treatment of the person receiving it. Reports are the common exception: a report is GST free only where a Medicare benefit is payable for it or it is an ordinary and natural part of the treatment being performed.

What services are exempt from GST in Australia?

For health, the ATO publishes the list of services that can be GST free, including acupuncture, audiology, chiropractic, dental, dietary, nursing, occupational therapy, optometry, osteopathy, physiotherapy, podiatry, psychology, social work and speech pathology. The service also has to be performed by a recognised professional in that listed service and accepted by the profession as necessary for appropriate treatment. A service that is only similar to a listed one does not qualify.

Is a psychological report GST free?

Usually not. A psychological assessment written because a court, a solicitor, a school, an employer or an insurer asked for it is supplied to that party, so it fails the condition that the service be necessary for the appropriate treatment of the recipient of the supply. A letter written as part of treating the client, and not billed as a separate item, is a different case.

What is the GST on a medico-legal report?

The general rate of 10 percent, since a taxable report is an ordinary taxable supply. In Xero that is the GST on Income tax rate, which reports the line at total sales and at GST on sales on the activity statement. The consults around it, where they are GST free, use a different rate on their own lines.

Do you pay GST on medical supplies?

Goods are a separate question this page does not settle. In outline, goods are GST free where they are a necessary part of a GST free health service and supplied at the same time and place, extra dressings the patient takes home are not, and a medical aid or appliance listed in the GST Act carries its own three conditions and the same treatment at wholesale or retail. The GST answers on products and equipment take that apart properly.

GST answers

GST on reports and medico-legal work

Usually taxable. A report is GST free only where a Medicare benefit is payable for it, or where it is an ordinary and natural part of performing the GST free treatment. A report a solicitor, insurer, school or employer commissioned meets neither test, and the examination booked to write it goes the same way.

Key facts

The only two ways a medical report is GST free: A Medicare benefit is payable for the report, or the report is an ordinary and natural part of the performance of the GST free medical service¹
Who the recipient of the supply is: Whoever engages the health practitioner to provide the service, which in many cases is the patient and in some cases is a business²
What the examination does: It goes with the report: in the ATO's litigation example the examination and the report are both outside GST free treatment, in one finding covering both¹
Where the report is sent: Not the test. A report handed to the patient for his solicitor is taxable, and written conclusions sent to a referring practitioner can stay GST free¹
The condition an allied health report is read against: That the profession generally accepts the service as necessary for the appropriate treatment of the recipient of the supply, and the ATO adds that the recipient will not always be the patient³
How a practitioner facing guide puts it: The ATO regards the recipients of the report as a third party rather than as patients, so report writing is not a health service and GST is added to the fee⁸
Where all three canonical templates post it: 420 Reports, assessments and medico-legal, at the GST on Income tax rate, through a row each template writes for a private report rather than through a funder default⁹
What the NDIS template calls the same account: Reports, assessments and progress notes for third parties, at the same account code and the same tax rate¹¹

The two tests a report has to meet

A report is a supply in its own right. The ATO gives it two ways to be GST free and no third one: a Medicare benefit is payable for the report, or the report is an ordinary and natural part of performing the GST free service. Most of the paperwork a practice bills as a separate item meets neither.

A medical report that a medical practitioner supplies is only GST-free where one of the following is provided: a Medicare benefit is payable for the report; the report is an ordinary and natural part of the performance of the GST-free medical service.¹

Read the second test narrowly. A letter dictated after a session and filed in the client's notes is part of treating them. A document written because a solicitor, an insurer, a school or an employer asked for it exists to answer that party's question. It is billed as its own item because it is its own supply.

What the report is part of, not where it goes

The ATO puts two report examples on one page and they point in opposite directions. In the first, a solicitor acting for an injured client sends him to his general practitioner for an examination and a report on the extent of his injuries. The client collects the report and hands it to the solicitor himself. It is taxable. In the second, a visitor to Australia engages a pathologist directly, and the written conclusions are sent to the referring doctor rather than to the patient. That one is GST free.

Side by side, the pair answers the question practitioners keep asking, which is whether sending a report to a third party is what makes it taxable. It is not. The report the patient carried away was taxable and the report the patient did not see stayed GST free. What separated them was the work each report belonged to. The pathology conclusions are a natural part of performing the service the visitor engaged. The litigation report is a natural part of nothing the doctor supplies to the injured client, and no Medicare benefit is payable for it.

The recipient question sits underneath both, and where a business commissions the work the ATO names that business the recipient.

The recipient of the supply is whoever engages the health practitioner to provide the service. In many cases, this will be the patient. However, in some cases, it will be a business.²

The examination goes with the report

The litigation example carries a second finding that rarely survives into a summary. The ATO puts the examination outside GST free treatment alongside the report, in one sentence covering both. So the appointment booked to gather the material takes the same rate as the document it produces, even though it looks like an ordinary consult in the diary.

The examination and report by Dr Cliffe are not GST-free because both: a Medicare benefit is not payable; the report is not a natural part of any GST-free medical service that Dr Cliffe supplies to Jason.¹

That is how the error gets in. The assessment sits in the diary between two GST free consults, runs the usual hour, and is coded like them. A medico-legal assessment and the report it produces are one commissioned piece of work, and both lines of the invoice have to say so.

How an allied health practice reaches the same answer

The ATO examples above are written about medical practitioners, where the first test is whether a Medicare benefit is payable. A psychologist, physiotherapist, occupational therapist or speech pathologist is not making that kind of supply, so the route runs through the listed health service conditions instead.

The service has to be one of the listed health services, and the ATO says a service that is only similar to a listed one does not qualify.
It has to be performed by a recognised health professional in that listed service.
The profession has to generally accept it as necessary for the appropriate treatment of the recipient of the supply.
Appropriate treatment means assessing a patient's health, working out a course of action to preserve, restore or improve their wellbeing, and supplying a treatment the profession accepts as appropriate for them.

The third condition is where a commissioned report comes apart. The recipient of that supply is the party that engaged the practice, and that party is not being treated. A file note written to carry the treatment forward still qualifies. A report written to answer somebody else's question does not, which lands an allied health practice in the same place as the ATO's medical examples by a different road.

How each kind of report reads

Common report types against the two tests¹²⁵⁸

What was asked for	Whose question it answers	How it reads
An assessment and report for litigation, at a solicitor's request	The solicitor's, for the litigation	Taxable, and the examination with it
A progress report and an estimate of further treatment for the insurer paying a claim	The insurer's, and the ATO names the insurer the recipient	Taxable, while treatment on the same claim keeps its own status
A functional or capacity report for a school or an employer	The school's or the employer's	Taxable on the reading that the party asking is not the person being treated
Written conclusions sent to a referring practitioner as part of care the patient engaged	The patient's own care	GST free, as part of performing the treatment
Progress notes and letters written to carry the practice's own treatment forward	The practice's own treatment	Part of performing the treatment rather than a separate supply

Two cases sit outside that table and have pages of their own. Report writing funded inside an NDIS plan is left open by the corpus, and the templates ask for a decision per report, so GST on NDIS report writing holds both readings. A report a compensation insurer commissioned is covered by GST on reports to WorkCover and insurers, where the treatment on the same claim keeps its GST free status.

What the canonical templates post

A rule only helps once the line lands somewhere. Ledger Map resolves every revenue line through a standing map built from a canonical template, and on a privately billed report the three canonical templates agree with each other, which is not true of every treatment key in the set.

Plate 1A private report line drawn as one posting, with the footer that names the three canonical templates behind it.

Each template writes its own row for this pair rather than letting a report fall to the funder default, and each posts it to the reports account at the taxable rate. The account name is the only thing that moves: two call the code reports, assessments and medico-legal, and the NDIS one calls it reports, assessments and progress notes for third parties. That agreement is worth noticing, because the same key for a compensation insurer resolves three ways.

Where the shorthand goes too far

Guidance written for practitioners compresses all of this into one line, and the compression costs something.

Report Writing: The ATO regards the recipients of the report not as patients but as a third party. Therefore, it is not classified as a health service. You need to add GST to your fee.⁸

That is right for the reports a practice bills separately, and it is the plainest statement in the sources written for practitioners. Read as a blanket rule it goes further than the ATO does, because the pathology example is a report that stays GST free. The two tests are the safer reading: ask whose question the document answers, then whether it is part of performing the treatment.

Legal briefings and court attendance follow the report. The same guide puts them together on the ground that the party requiring the attendance is an insurance company, a lawyer or a court, and the ATO's litigation example reaches the same place from the other direction.

One invoice, two rates

A practice that writes reports sends invoices carrying both kinds of line: consults at the GST free rate and a report at the taxable one. GST is a broad based tax of 10 percent, and the report line is the line that carries it. Xero holds the tax rate on the line, so the report line has to be set to the taxable rate itself.

Where the fee was quoted as one figure, there is a second decision: whether that figure included the tax or whether the component is added on top. What the practice agreed with the solicitor, insurer or school settles that, not the tax law.

A cancellation fee for a booked medico-legal assessment needs the same care, because a cancellation fee is treated as payment for the appointment it replaces and takes that appointment's status. GST on cancellation and no show fees works that through.

What getting it wrong costs

A taxable report coded at the GST free rate understates GST on sales. The shortfall can be assessed with interest and penalties, and whether the practice can go back to the solicitor, insurer or school for the difference depends on what was agreed rather than on the tax law.

The mirror error costs the other way. A GST free consult coded taxable means remitting GST the practice did not collect, and unwinding it takes an amended activity statement. Both errors come from treating a tax rate as a property of the practice rather than of the line. GST on private patient consults covers the line that is GST free, and this page covers the one beside it that usually is not.

What Ledger Map does with it

Ledger Map holds one standing map for the practice, and the practice approves it before anything syncs. A report item is mapped once against the report category, so it stops picking up the rate of the appointments it sits between, and the account and the tax rate come out of the canonical template the practice started from rather than from the product's opinion.

When the money arrives, the deposit is posted as one balanced document set, which leaves one exact match in the bank feed. A line the map cannot place becomes a question with the options laid out. The other GST answers carry the same record for every funding source in a practice's mix, and how it works shows the approval step.

Questions

Do doctors need to charge GST?
Not on medical services. A service a Medicare benefit is payable for is GST free, and so is a service generally accepted in the profession as necessary for the appropriate treatment of the person receiving it. Reports are the common exception: a report is GST free only where a Medicare benefit is payable for it or it is an ordinary and natural part of the treatment being performed.
What services are exempt from GST in Australia?
For health, the ATO publishes the list of services that can be GST free, including acupuncture, audiology, chiropractic, dental, dietary, nursing, occupational therapy, optometry, osteopathy, physiotherapy, podiatry, psychology, social work and speech pathology. The service also has to be performed by a recognised professional in that listed service and accepted by the profession as necessary for appropriate treatment. A service that is only similar to a listed one does not qualify.
Is a psychological report GST free?
Usually not. A psychological assessment written because a court, a solicitor, a school, an employer or an insurer asked for it is supplied to that party, so it fails the condition that the service be necessary for the appropriate treatment of the recipient of the supply. A letter written as part of treating the client, and not billed as a separate item, is a different case.
What is the GST on a medico-legal report?
The general rate of 10 percent, since a taxable report is an ordinary taxable supply. In Xero that is the GST on Income tax rate, which reports the line at total sales and at GST on sales on the activity statement. The consults around it, where they are GST free, use a different rate on their own lines.
Do you pay GST on medical supplies?
Goods are a separate question this page does not settle. In outline, goods are GST free where they are a necessary part of a GST free health service and supplied at the same time and place, extra dressings the patient takes home are not, and a medical aid or appliance listed in the GST Act carries its own three conditions and the same treatment at wholesale or retail. The GST answers on products and equipment take that apart properly.

Sources

Open questions

Where the boundary sits between a report that is an ordinary and natural part of performing the treatment and a report that is its own supply. The ATO gives one example at each end and no test for the cases between them, so a practice that bills documentation regularly is working without a line it can point to.
The ATO's three report examples are written about medical practitioners and Medicare benefits. The allied health reading through the listed service conditions and the recipient of the supply is this page's reasoning, not a sentence the ATO wrote for allied health.
The shorthand that a third party recipient makes a report taxable is not the ATO's reason in every example. In the litigation example the patient collected the report himself and the ATO names no recipient, resting the answer on the two report tests instead. The recipient reasoning is stated in the insurer example, where the ATO names the insurer.
The issues register page on medico-legal reports and third parties could not be read at the source. The ATO refused the fetch on 3 Sep 2026 and the session's verified copies do not include it, so it is cited unverified and nothing here rests on it.
Report writing funded inside an NDIS plan is left open across the corpus, and the canonical templates ask for a decision per report rather than settling it. It is not resolved here.
Whether a practice can add the tax to a fee it has already quoted. That turns on the engagement terms with the solicitor, insurer, school or employer, and no fee schedule was verified on this pass, so no figure for a report fee appears on this page.

Medical services, GST and health
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
primary
Recipient of the supply, GST and health
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
primary
Other health services, GST and health
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
primary
Appropriate treatment, GST and health
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
primary
Supply of services through a third party, GST and health
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
primary
Goods supplied as part of a GST free health service, GST and health
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
primary
Medical aids and appliances, GST and health
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 8 Oct 2025.
primary
Goods and services tax for self employed psychologists
Sheridans Accountants and Financial Planners. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated Jul 2022.
secondary
Allied health by funding source, the canonical template
Ledger Map. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026.
primary
Psychology with booking deposits, the canonical template
Ledger Map. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026.
primary
NDIS provider, plan managed, the canonical template
Ledger Map. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026.
primary
Health industry partnership issues register, medico-legal reports
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026.
unverified

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.

Guided onboarding

Run one real month before you go live.

Sign up, connect Zanda and Xero, and replay a month you already closed. The map is reviewed with whoever owns the books, and nothing posts until you approve it.

Start your map

Every practice starts from a template. Nothing posts until the map is approved.