Tracts and pamphlets are zero-rated (0% VAT) in the UK under HMRC VAT Notice 701/10, paragraph 3.2.
Tracts and pamphlets
0% VAT
Several sheets of reading matter folded or fastened together. Political, religious or campaigning content makes no difference.
HMRC VAT Notice 701/10, paragraph 3.2
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Pamphlets are not defined in law. HMRC describes them as similar to brochures, several sheets of reading matter fastened or folded together, but usually comprised of material of a political, social or intellectual nature, and section 8 lists tracts as zero-rated in their own right. Content is never the obstacle: a religious tract, a campaign pamphlet and a think-tank paper sit in the same place. What decides it is the same as for any brochure. It has to convey information, carry a substantial amount of text with some indication of what it is or who issued it, not be there mainly to hold other things, and be supplied complete.
Sheets of reading matter, supplied complete. The subject matter is irrelevant.
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 3.2, HMRC's guidance on zero rating books and printed matter. See the notices we work from.
Tracts are listed as zero-rated, and it is sheets of reading matter folded together.
Pamphlets are usually political or social in content, which is exactly what this is.
No substantial text, so it is not conveying information in the way a pamphlet does.