{"id":460667,"date":"2026-07-21T18:06:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/07\/21\/sole-e-salute-ue-abbassare-liva-sulle-creme-solari-non-si-puo-sono-cosmetici\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T18:28:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T16:28:32","slug":"sun-and-health-eu-lowering-vat-on-sun-creams-its-not-possible-theyre-cosmetics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/07\/21\/sun-and-health-eu-lowering-vat-on-sun-creams-its-not-possible-theyre-cosmetics\/","title":{"rendered":"Sun and health, EU: Lowering VAT on sun creams? It\u2019s not possible\u2014they\u2019re cosmetics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Lowering VAT on sun creams in an attempt to encourage their use and protect Europeans\u2019 skin from the rising incidence of skin cancer? It\u2019s not possible, because they are cosmetics, not pharmaceutical products. So says the European Commission. <\/p>\n

The issue was raised<\/a> by the Irish MEP from Renew, Billy Kelleher<\/strong>, who tabled a written question at the Berlaymont Building on 17 June. In his question, Kelleher emphasised that \u201caccording to data from the European Cancer Information System<\/b><\/a>, cases and deaths associated with melanoma are on the rise in Europe,\u201d making skin cancer \u201cthe fourth most common cancer in the EU.\u201d Against a backdrop of rising temperatures due to global warming, \u201cexposure to UV radiation will also increase,\u201d he noted. However, \u201ca key aspect of
\nEurope\u2019s Beating Cancer Plan<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

is prevention\u201d, the MEP emphasised, and this should include \u201cboth early medical intervention and screening, as well as enabling citizens to make healthy choices.\u201d Kelleher added that countries such as Australia have already adopted decisive and effective measures to tackle the skin cancer crisis, resulting in a significant \u201creduction in cases among people under 40.\u201d This brings us to the crux of the matter: does the EU Commission intend to include sun creams in the list of goods and services to which reduced VAT rates may be applied in accordance with Annex II of the VAT Directive (2006\/112\/CE)<\/a> or will these goods continue to be classified as cosmetic products and therefore subject to a VAT rate of at least 15 per cent?<\/strong> <\/p>\n

The executive\u2019s answer<\/a> was issued on 16 July. The European Commissioner for Taxation, Wopke Hoekstra, <\/strong>reiterated that the third category of Annex III to the VAT Directive \u201callows Member States to apply a reduced VAT rate to pharmaceutical products used for medical and veterinary purposes, including products used for contraception and feminine hygiene, and absorbent sanitary products.\u201d Hoekstra pointed out that when the Council of the EU adopted the major reform of VAT rates in 2022, \u201cMember States had already discussed the issue in depth and unanimously agreed to make only minor changes to the wording.\u201d These amendments \u201cdo not extend the category to products that should not be considered pharmaceutical<\/strong>,\u201d the Commissioner clarified. Hoekstra also emphasised that reduced VAT rates \u201cgenerally have a limited impact on prices due to the low pass-through effect,\u201d because \u201cshops are not legally obliged to pass on any VAT savings to their customers by reducing prices.\u201d In 2022, the reform of the rates \u201cwas the result of a hard-won political compromise\u201d and \u201cgiven the political sensitivity of the issue, the Commission does not intend to propose any further changes in this area,\u201d he concluded. <\/p>\n

Directive 2006\/112\/EC, also known as the VAT Directive, harmonises the laws of the Member States and sets out the basic principles of Value Added Tax, ensuring that goods and services are taxed uniformly to prevent distortions of competition within the European internal market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Member of the European Parliament has asked the Berlaymont building whether these products can be classified as medicines and therefore qualify for tax relief, given the rise in cases of skin cancer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":460652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30961],"tags":[25871,25815,35007,28734,35008,27072,25755,30127,26869,26783],"class_list":["post-460667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-salute-en","tag-agenzia-esecutiva-per-la-ricerca","tag-billy-kelleherat","tag-commissario-europeo-salute","tag-council-ue-en","tag-news-parliament-en","tag-hoekstra-and","tag-irlanda-en","tag-renew-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460668,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460667\/revisions\/460668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}