MEDIMARK EUROPE

The 2012 law on financing French social security (the Social Security Financing Bill), which was officially published on December 22, 2011 and wanted to reduce the national budget deficit, includes a full revision of the AFSSAPS tax. According to the provisions of the new law, the annual tax is now being levied to help finance social security, instead of AFSSAPS, and shall be paid by the companies that are subject to the value added tax (VAT) and make the first sales in France. The first sale in France means the first sale of a medical device or an IVD occurring after being either manufactured in France or imported into France from abroad. For medical device companies in the United States and non-European Economic Area (EEA) countries, this means their French or European distributors. All concerned distributors will have to send a declaration of their annual sales to AFSSAPS before March 31 of each year.