# Charity pens hit by Customs ruling on VAT

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2003/07/09/charity-pens-hit-customs-ruling-vat/
- Published: 2003-07-09T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

The free charity pen beloved by many direct marketing fundraisers could disappear
following a ruling on VAT.
HM Customs and Excise is to require suppliers to charge
VAT on pens to charities who insert them in fundraising direct mail packs. This 
will probably make this model too expensive for charities to continue to use.

Mail packs can be zero-rated for VAT but Customs spotted that suppliers were applying
this zero rating to pens added to packs, so stepped in to stop this.

The pen pack has worked well for some organisations, particularly Amnesty International
which ran a pen pack as its banker direct marketing pack for years during the 1990s.
However, they have been overdone, especially by charities sending out donor ‘questionnaires’
whose data was seldom acted upon.

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