Catalogues are usually zero-rated (0% VAT) in the UK, but only if they meet HMRC's conditions: no more than a quarter of it is space to fill in or tear off and return; not designed to be filled in and sent back whole (HMRC VAT Notice 701/10, paragraph 3.1).
Catalogues
0% VAT
Catalogues and directories are zero-rated. Advertising content doesn't stop them.
HMRC VAT Notice 701/10, paragraph 3.1
0% as long as it's:
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Catalogues are named in the zero-rated list at 3.1 and appear three times in section 8, as catalogues, mail order catalogues and trade catalogues. Being entirely a sales document costs them nothing: HMRC says brochures usually contain advertising material, and it never treats commercial content as a reason to standard-rate. The trap is the order form. Anything primarily intended for completion or detachment is a form, and HMRC accepts an item is not primarily intended for that where a quarter or less of its total area is blank space to fill in or parts to tear off and return. A catalogue with a bound-in order form is normally well inside that. A catalogue designed to be completed and posted back whole is always standard-rated, whatever its area.
How much of it is there to be filled in or torn out. A quarter is the line, and returning the whole thing is fatal.
The zero rate applies as long as it's: no more than a quarter of it is space to fill in or tear off and return; not designed to be filled in and sent back whole. If any one of those isn't true, it isn't zero-rated, so it's 20%.
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.
HMRC VAT Notice 701/10, paragraph 3.1, HMRC's guidance on zero rating books and printed matter. See the notices we work from.
Advertising content is fine, and the form is far below a quarter of the area.
Half the area is there for completion, so it is a form.
Swatch books and swatch cards are listed as standard-rated.