Is there VAT on restaurant, cafe or bar printing?

The same menu is two different rates depending on where it ends up. The one pushed through letterboxes in thousands is a leaflet and can be zero-rated. The one laminated for the table is a menu card, which HMRC lists as standard-rated, and lamination is treated as evidence that a thing is designed to be kept. Loyalty cards, vouchers and table talkers are standard-rated too, so most of a restaurant order carries VAT.

Table for one, please.And the standard rate on the menus.

Printing for a restaurant, cafe or bar

Some 0%, some 20%

Here's the usual print for a restaurant, cafe or bar. Tap any item to see why it's 0% or 20%.

Printing for a restaurant, cafe or bar? Tenfold can quote for all of it.Get a print quote →

So is a menu zero-rated or not?

It depends entirely on what the menu is for. A door-drop menu on limp paper, in at least fifty copies, read and thrown away, meets the leaflet conditions. A menu on board or laminated for the table is the menu card HMRC lists as standard-rated. Nothing about the design or the wording decides it.

Menus ?

HMRC lists menu cards as standard-rated. A takeaway menu posted through doors can be zero-rated, but only where it meets the leaflet conditions.

Takeaway menu leaflets 0%

A takeaway menu pushed through doors counts as a leaflet when it meets the leaflet conditions: picked up, read, binned. Zero-rated on that basis, not because it is a menu.

Table menu cards 20%

HMRC lists menu cards as standard-rated. They're kept and used on the table, not read and thrown away.

Cups, bags and greaseproof paper 20%

Packaging and wrapping aren't reading matter, so they're standard-rated.

Aprons and staff uniform 20%

Clothing is standard-rated. The zero rate for print only covers paper and card, and the separate zero rate for clothing only covers young children's clothes.

Food and packaging labels 20%

HMRC lists stickers, labels and tags as standard-rated.

Shop and pavement signs 20%

The zero rate only covers paper and card. Fabric, vinyl, PVC, foamboard and the like are standard-rated.

Loyalty cards 20%

Anything that gets you in, gets you money off or has a value of its own is standard-rated.

Vouchers and coupons 20%

Anything that gets you in, gets you money off or has a value of its own is standard-rated.

Table talkers and point of sale 20%

Point-of-sale and display items are standard-rated. They're for display, not for reading in the hand.

Posters 20%

Anything made to go on a wall or be displayed is standard-rated. The zero rate is for things you hold and read.

Branded pens and mugs 20%

Merchandise isn't printed matter in the VAT sense, so it's standard-rated.