This guidance note provides information on:
VAT on postage
VAT on delivery charges
the limited circumstances when postage and delivery charges may be treated as a disbursement
For information on the VAT treatment of supplies of stamps, please refer to the Liability ― supplies of stamps and philatelic items guidance note.
If a business recharges the cost of postage to a customer the VAT treatment of the recharged postage should follow the VAT treatment of the main supply. To the extent that a supplier has correctly charged VAT, the customer can recover the VAT as input tax, subject to the normal rules. For information about the conditions for recovering VAT as input tax, please refer to the Input tax - conditions for recovering VAT guidance note.
Key points in relation to VAT on postage include:
Royal Mail is the only organisation in the UK that can make an exempt supply of postage
not all the postage services supplied by Royal Mail are exempt from VAT
Notice
Residential property and capital allowancesResidential property ― plant and machinery allowancesOrdinary residential property does not, and never has, qualified for capital allowances. as CAA 2001, s 35 denies plant allowances for expenditure incurred in providing plant or machinery for use in a
Gifts with reservation ― overviewIntroductionA gift with reservation (GWR) arises when an individual ostensibly makes a gift of his property to another person but retains for himself some or all of the benefit of owning the property. The legislation defines a gift with reservation with reference to
Computation of corporation taxCompanies pay corporation tax on the taxable total profits (TTP) generated in a chargeable accounting period (CAP).To ascertain whether the entity is within the charge to corporation tax, see the Charge to corporation tax guidance note.For more information on the type