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News Corp UK & Ireland Ltd v HMRC

Supreme Court finds that digital newspapers are not ‘newspapers’ for VAT purposes 

In News Corp UK & Ireland Ltd v HMRC [2023] UKSC 7 (22 February 2023) the Supreme Court (SC) found that VAT zero-rating did not apply to digital newspapers as it decided that what was being supplied was not a ‘newspaper’ and did not meet the criteria for VAT zero-rating.  

News Corp UK & Ireland (News UK) contended that the meaning of 'newspapers' in VATA 1994 Sch 8 Group 3 was broad enough to include the digital versions of newspapers now routinely available online applying the ‘always speaking’ principle. The ‘always speaking’ principle holds that a statute should be interpreted considering changes that have occurred since it became law even if those changes could not have been reasonably foreseen at the time the statute was enacted. In essence the argument was that digital newspapers were...

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