How Much VAT? by Tenfold

Is there VAT on recipe cards and reference cards?

Recipe cards and reference cards are standard-rated (20% VAT) in the UK under HMRC VAT Notice 701/10, paragraph 3.3.

Twenty per cent.I don't make the rules, I merely apply them.
RECIPEKEEP THIS ONE

Recipe cards and reference cards

20% VAT

It's designed to be kept and used, not read and thrown away, so it isn't a leaflet. Standard-rated.

HMRC VAT Notice 701/10, paragraph 3.3

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Why are recipe cards and reference cards 20%?

HMRC names reference material as an example of something that would not be a leaflet, and a recipe card is the clearest case of it: the point of the card is that it goes in a box, on a fridge or in a drawer and is used again. The same reasoning covers swatch and shade cards, index cards, flash cards and pattern cards, all of which the notice lists as standard-rated. The difference between this and a recipe book is worth knowing, because it is not about quality: recipe books are listed as zero-rated, because bound pages of reading matter are a book however often you cook from them.

What decides it?

A card kept for reference is standard-rated. The same recipes bound into a book are zero-rated.

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

  • A boxed set of 40 recipe cards on 350gsm board20%

    Reference material, kept and used. HMRC names reference material as outside the leaflet meaning.

  • The same 40 recipes as a stapled A5 booklet0%

    Recipe books are listed as zero-rated.

  • A single recipe leaflet given away with a bag of flour0%

    A leaflet may be designed to accompany another product.

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