Newspapers are usually zero-rated (0% VAT) in the UK, but only if they meet HMRC's conditions: contains a substantial amount of news (a newsprint-style brochure is still zero-rated, as a brochure) (HMRC VAT Notice 701/10, paragraph 3.5).
Newspapers
0% VAT
A continuous series under one title, carrying a substantial amount of news.
HMRC VAT Notice 701/10, paragraph 3.5
0% as long as it's:
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HMRC's description of a newspaper is specific: issued at least once a week in a continuous series under the same title, each issue usually dated or serially numbered, usually several large sheets folded rather than bound, containing information about current events of local, national or international interest. Then the line that decides the arguments: publications which do not contain a substantial amount of news are not newspapers. Readers' letters, sports, weather, crosswords and feature supplements are all normal parts of one and do not count against it. None of this is a reason to worry about a newsprint job that is really a brochure, because that is zero-rated as a brochure anyway.
A substantial amount of news, issued at least weekly under the same title.
The zero rate applies as long as it's: contains a substantial amount of news (a newsprint-style brochure is still zero-rated, as a brochure). 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 3.5, HMRC's guidance on zero rating books and printed matter. See the notices we work from.
Every characteristic HMRC lists for a newspaper.
Not a newspaper, but sheets of reading matter folded together, so a brochure.
Sheets intended for public display are standard-rated.