Leasing oder Kauf von Laborgeräten

Leasing and Kauf are the two routes by which a measuring device reaches a 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 belongs to the Leasinggeber for the whole term, so the pharmacy only holds a right of use against an agreed Leasingrate.

Four things differ between the two routes:

1. Ownership decides who may sell, replace or write off the device.
2. The monthly commitment differs, because a purchase is a single 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 fell.
3. The end of the term differs, since a bought device stays in the pharmacy while a leased one is returned, extended or taken over at a residual value the contract fixes in advance.
4. The treatment in the accounts differs most of all, which 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 route suits a particular pharmacy depends on the legal form, on the current result and on how the contract is drafted, so that comparison belongs with the Steuerberater before anything is signed.

Both routes take cash out of the pharmacy every month, so both belong in the Liquiditätsplanung rather than only in an investment calculation. In both cases the Amortisationsdauer has to be worked out on the same expected number of appointments.

The published material has one bias worth allowing for, because most online comparisons of Leasing versus Kauf come from leasing providers or from brokers paid on the contract, which explains why the arguments favour one side.

A third arrangement exists, in which the device is never acquired at all because an external laboratory carries out the analysis or the equipment comes as part of a service. In that model the Leasing question does not arise and the equipment cost is included in a per case price, which is a description of how such models are built rather than a recommendation of one.