Leasing oder Kauf von Laborgeräten

Leasing and Kauf are the two routes by which a measuring device reaches the pharmacy, and the choice is usually presented as a price comparison when it is really a question about ownership, commitment and bookkeeping. A device for a Point-of-Care-Test that is bought belongs to the pharmacy from the day it is delivered. The same device on a Leasingvertrag stays with the Leasinggeber for the whole term, and the pharmacy holds a right of use against an agreed Leasingrate.

Four things actually differ. Ownership is the first, and it decides who may sell, replace or write off the device. The monthly commitment is the second: a purchase is one outflow, or a loan with a repayment schedule that ends, while a Leasingrate runs for the agreed term and is normally not cancellable because utilisation dropped. The end of the term is the third, since a bought device stays in the pharmacy while a leased one is returned, extended or taken over at a residual value that the contract fixes in advance. The treatment in the accounts is the fourth.

That last point is where the two routes look least alike. A purchased device is an asset whose cost is spread across the years it is used, which is the subject of Abschreibung auf Medizintechnik, whereas a Leasingrate is generally recognised as an operating expense in the period it falls due. Which of the two suits a particular pharmacy depends on the legal form, on the current result and on how the contract is drafted, and that comparison belongs with the Steuerberater before a contract is signed. Both routes make a claim on cash every month, so both belong in the Liquiditätsplanung and not only in an investment calculation, and in both cases the Amortisationsdauer has to be worked out on the same expected number of appointments.

The available material carries one bias worth allowing for. Most of the comparisons published online on Leasing versus Kauf come from leasing providers or from brokers paid on the contract, which explains why the arguments tend to lean in one direction.

There is also a third arrangement, in which the device is not acquired at all because the analysis is carried out by an external laboratory or the equipment is provided as part of a service. Where a model is built that way the Leasing question does not arise, and the equipment cost sits inside a per case price instead. That is a description of how such models are structured, not a recommendation of one.