Supreme Court confirms that digital newspapers were not eligible for VAT zero-rating (News Corp UK & Ireland Ltd v HMRC)

Published on: 22 February 2023

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Specialist Tax Regulatory Materials

Article summary

In News Corp UK & Ireland Ltd v HMRC, the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the taxpayer's appeal, holding that the 'always speaking' principle of statutory interpretation had to be applied narrowly given the constraints of EU law. The relevant 'genus of facts' should therefore be viewed as covering only physical versions of newspapers involving the medium of print and no connectivity requirement. As such, digital editions of newspapers did not fall within that categorisation. As well as outlining the key aspects of this decision, this LNB news piece also contains the thoughts of Adam Craggs, tax partner at RPC and Giles Salmond, head of indirect tax at Eversheds Sutherland.

Jurisdiction(s): England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales

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