The reasoning is the one at 3.3: something whose main function is to be kept or used for a specific purpose in its own right is not a leaflet. A table menu is used, handed to the next guest and used again. Card and lamination both point the same way, and HMRC says in terms that it considers laminated items designed to be kept. The takeaway menu that goes through letterboxes is the same words on different paper doing a different job, and that one can be zero-rated as a leaflet.
What decides it?
Used at the table, or delivered and binned.
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
60 laminated A4 menus for a restaurant's tables20%
Menu cards are listed as standard-rated, and lamination is treated as designed to be kept.
A single-use printed menu for a wedding breakfast20%
Still a menu card. HMRC's list does not turn on how many times it is used.
10,000 A5 takeaway menus for a door drop0%
On limp paper, distributed in quantity, read and thrown away. A leaflet.
