The Australian Tax Office has issued a ruling that the payments associated with the Quality Use of Medicines (QUM) Program are subject to Goods and Services Tax (GST).

The Pharmacy Programs Administrator (PPA) wishes to advise therefore that, starting today, payments for QUM claims submitted and approved by Service Providers who are registered for GST, irrespective of the claiming period, will be subject to GST. This means that those registered for GST will receive the standard QUM payment amount with the additional GST amount added.

QUM program participants who are not registered for GST will see no change to their payments from the PPA.

The remittance advice associated with each claim payment will indicate whether GST has been applied and paid. Remittance advices associated with each payment are emailed to Service Providers and are downloadable from the ‘View Remittance Advices’ tab under the relevant Service Provider name on your PPA Portal home page.

Updated website content, FAQs, and Program Rules are available on the PPA website.

To ensure GST is applied accurately, the PPA requests that Service Providers check their GST status on the PPA Portal. This can be done by selecting the ‘Update or View Details’ option below the appropriate Service Provider name on your PPA Portal home page. The GST status is within the ‘Pharmacy/Business details’ section. If the GST status is incorrect, please contact the PPA to update it.