Door hangers can be 0% or 20% VAT in the UK depending on the job (HMRC VAT Notice 701/10, paragraph 3.3). Information to read and throw away, like a flyer on your door: 0% VAT. Made to hang up and be kept, like a do not disturb sign: 20% VAT.
PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Knock knock.I'll need the particulars.
Door hangers
It depends
A door hanger that's really a leaflet (information you read and bin) can be zero-rated. One made to hang up and be reused, like a do not disturb sign, is 20%.
Door hangers are sold as one product and are really two. The version printed in thousands and hung on front doors instead of being posted is a leaflet by every characteristic HMRC lists: a single sheet, limp paper, held and read, distributed in quantity, thrown away the same day. The die-cut hole does not change any of that. The version printed in fifty on board so a hotel guest can hang it on the handle for months is made to be kept and used for a purpose of its own, which is the exact wording HMRC uses for what is not a leaflet.
What decides it?
Whether it is delivered and discarded, or hung up and reused.
How do I know which VAT rate applies to door hangers?
Information to read and throw away, like a flyer on your door: 0% VAT. Made to hang up and be kept, like a do not disturb sign: 20% VAT.
Where does this come from?
HMRC VAT Notice 701/10, paragraph 3.3, HMRC's guidance on zero rating books and printed matter. See the notices we work from.
Some real jobs
5,000 card door hangers advertising a takeaway, hung on doors0%
Read and binned. Card is not an automatic disqualifier when the function is a leaflet's.
200 do not disturb hangers for a hotel20%
Made to be kept and used for a specific purpose in its own right.
