How Much VAT? by Tenfold

Is there VAT on annual reports and company accounts?

Annual reports and company accounts are usually zero-rated (0% VAT) in the UK, but only if they meet HMRC's conditions: printed copies of a finished report (a commissioned report from a consultant is a service and is standard-rated) (HMRC VAT Notice 701/10, section 8).

Zero-rated.A full year of figures, and none for me.
ANNUALREPORT

Annual reports and company accounts

0% VAT

Fully printed company accounts and reports are zero-rated.

HMRC VAT Notice 701/10, section 8

0% as long as it's:

  • Printed copies of a finished report (a commissioned report from a consultant is a service and is standard-rated)

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Why are annual reports and company accounts 0%?

A printed annual report and accounts is a booklet, and HMRC's A to Z names company accounts and reports, and fully printed accounts, in their own right. The part worth care is not the printing at all, it is the writing. Section 7.2 standard-rates services of an original or specialist nature, and names a report commissioned from a consultant, analyst or adviser as an example: where the service is the report, any goods produced are incidental to it. So the consultant's fee for producing the report is standard-rated, while your printing of the finished thing is zero-rated. HMRC then allows extra copies of such items to be zero-rated where they are in a qualifying format and priced to cover only the cost of producing them plus a reasonable mark-up.

What decides it?

Printing a finished report is zero-rated. Being paid to write one is a standard-rated service.

When would annual reports and company accounts be charged at 20% VAT?

The zero rate applies as long as it's: printed copies of a finished report (a commissioned report from a consultant is a service and is standard-rated). If any one of those isn't true, it isn't zero-rated, so it's 20%.

Is the design and artwork for annual reports and company accounts 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

  • 500 perfect-bound annual reports printed for a charity0%

    Company accounts and reports are listed as zero-rated.

  • A consultant's fee for researching and writing the report20%

    7.2 names a report commissioned from a consultant as a standard-rated service.

  • Extra copies of that consultant's report, at cost plus a reasonable mark-up0%

    7.2 allows extra copies to be zero-rated on those terms, in a qualifying format.

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