Agendas are usually zero-rated (0% VAT) in the UK, but only if they meet HMRC's conditions: fully printed, not a template for filling in (HMRC VAT Notice 701/10, section 8).
PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Exempt from my attentions.This once.
Agendas
0% VAT
Fully printed agendas are zero-rated.
HMRC VAT Notice 701/10, section 8
0% as long as it's:
Fully printed, not a template for filling in
Need these printed?
Tell Tenfold the quantity, size and deadline. We'll put together a quote for your job.
Section 8 zero-rates agendas and adds one word in brackets that does all the work: fully printed. A printed agenda is a sheet of reading matter, complete in itself, handed round and thrown away after the meeting, which is a leaflet in every particular. An agenda template with ruled space to write the items in is stationery, and if more than a quarter of the area is blank for completion it is a form under 3.4. The same bracket appears against accounts and company reports, and it means the same thing in both places.
What decides it?
Fully printed, or blank space to write in.
When would agendas be charged at 20% VAT?
The zero rate applies as long as it's: fully printed, not a template for filling in. If any one of those isn't true, it isn't zero-rated, so it's 20%.
Is the design and artwork for agendas zero-rated too?
If your printer does the design, typesetting or finishing as part of the same zero-rated print job, that work can be zero-rated too. Design bought separately from a studio is a standard-rated service.
Where does this come from?
HMRC VAT Notice 701/10, section 8, HMRC's guidance on zero rating books and printed matter. See the notices we work from.
Some real jobs
A printed agenda for an AGM, one sheet per attendee0%
Fully printed agendas are listed as zero-rated.
An agenda pad with headings and ruled space for notes20%
Note pads are stationery, and the area for completion is the point of it.
