A compliment slip sits in the same run of HMRC's A to Z as letter headings, envelopes, billheads and stationery generally. 4.2 is the reasoning: stationery items are standard-rated. A compliment slip exists to be written on and sent with something else, so it conveys no information of its own in the sense a leaflet does. There is one narrow exception elsewhere in the tax, and it is not this: the charity concession covers stationery used to ask for donations, and says expressly that it does not cover a charity's general stationery.
What decides it?
It is stationery. However well printed, it is something to write on.
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
1,000 compliment slips on letterhead stock20%
Compliment slips are listed as standard-rated.
A charity's compliment slips20%
The charity concession does not cover general stationery supplied to charities.
