“Member States which, at1 January 1991 , were granting exemptions with deductibility of the VAT paid at the preceding stage or applying reduced rates lower than the minimum laid down in Article 99 may continue to grant those exemptions or apply those reduced rates. The exemptions and reduced rates referred to in the first paragraph must be in accordance with Community law and must be adopted for clearly defined social reasons and for the benefit of the final consumer.”
“ Group 3 — Books, etc Item No 1 Books, booklets, brochures, pamphlets and leaflets. 2 Newspapers, journals and periodicals. 3 Children's picture books and painting books. 4 Music (printed, duplicated or manuscript). 5 Maps, charts and topographical plans. 6 Covers, cases and other articles supplied with items 1 to 5 and not separately accounted for. [Note : Items 1 to 6— ( a ) do not include plans or drawings for industrial, architectural, engineering, commercial or similar purposes; but ( b ) include the supply of the services described in paragraph 1(1) of Schedule 4 in respect of goods comprised in the items.”
“(2A) A supply by a person of services which consist of applying a treatment or process to another person's goods is zero-rated by virtue of this subsection if by doing so he produces goods, and either— ( a ) those goods are of a description for the time being specified in Schedule 8; or ( b ) a supply by him of those goods to the person to whom he supplies the services would be of a description so specified.”
“17. It should be noted from the outset that, in authorising member states to apply exemptions with refund of the tax paid, art 28(2) of the Sixth Directive lays down a derogation to art 12(3) thereof, which governs the standard rate of VAT. 18. It is apparent, secondly, from the wording of art 28(2)(a) of the Sixth Directive that the application of exemptions with refund of the tax paid is subject to a number of conditions. Those exemptions must have been in force on1 January 1991 . In addition, they must be in accordance with Community law and satisfy the conditions stated in the last indent of art 17 of the Second Council Directive 67/228 of11 April 1967 on the harmonisation of legislation of member states concerning turnover taxes—structure and procedures for application of the common system of value added tax (JO L71 14.4.67 p 1303 (S Edn 1967 p 16)), now repealed, which provided that exemptions with refund of the tax paid could only be established for clearly defined social reasons and for the benefit of the final consumer.”
“In my judgment, the English word 'book', although it always refers to an object whose necessary minimum characteristics are that it has a significant number of leaves, now usually of paper, held together front and back by covers usually more substantial than the leaves, is a word with a variety of possible more particular meanings. For any particular use of the word, its particular meaning will be derived from the circumstances in which it is used. For instance, if a barrister in the clerks' room of his chambers points to a blank counsel's notebook and says to his clerk 'please hand me that book', he would not expect the answer 'that is not a book'. (Mr Tallon surprisingly submitted that a counsel's notebook might not be a book because it was perforated—a point which he also made in relation to a cheque book.) On the other hand if the same counsel, having a substantial collection of law reports and legal textbooks in his room, asked the same clerk to count all the books in his room, he would not expect the clerk to include blank counsel's notebooks in the count. If a testator uses the word 'books', the word obviously has to be understood in the context of the objects which the testator in fact has to bequeath. In the first instance, the only circumstance here is that the words 'books' and 'booklets' are used in the Schedule to a statute. They are accordingly relevantly devoid of context. Devoid of context, in my judgment the ordinary meaning of the word 'book' is limited to objects having the minimum characteristics of a book which are to be read or looked at. (The same applies to 'booklet', which I think is a thin book perhaps with a rather flimsy cover. I am not sure about the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary definition of booklet as 'a tiny book', since I would not myself call a tiny book with many pages a booklet.) If you ask of a particular object 'is this a book?', you immediately provide a context, which the words in the statute lack. You will get an answer which is affected by the context. If you ask instead what I regard as the right question here, ie 'what is the ordinary meaning of the word “book”?', you should get an answer which accords with the ordinary meaning to which I have referred. As Mr Richards submitted (although he accepted that these diaries and address books might be books or booklets within one possible meaning of those words), people generally think of books as things to be read rather than as blank pages bound together. A filled-in diary of historical or literary interest may be a book because it is retained to be read or looked at. But a blank diary is not a book in the ordinary sense of the word. Likewise a blank address book is not in the ordinary sense a book and it does not become one simply because its name includes the word 'book'. A cheque book is plainly not a book nor, in my view, is it a booklet in the ordinary sense of that word. The fact that in some contexts you would say of a blank diary that it is a book within one possible meaning of that word does not mean that it is a book within the ordinary meaning of the word. There is in my view no reason for reading the words 'books' and 'booklets' in item 1 of Group 3 of Sch 5 to the 1983 Act in a more extended meaning than their ordinary meanings.”
“24. The Appellants' wedding book shared many of the physical characteristics of a book, in that it has leaves of paper bound together within a hard cover. We would, however, agree with the Respondents' observation that the pages were thicker than what would normally be found in a book. We consider that the wedding book was a pictorial record of a wedding which was of interest only to the persons immediately connected with the event. The text in the wedding book did not convey information and had no value in its own right, which could be deleted if the bride and groom did not want it. The Appellants marketed the wedding book on their websites as a wedding album. The fact that the pictorial record of the wedding book was permanent and could not be altered after publication did not, in our view, alter the fundamental character of the book as a wedding album. The Appellants' wedding book was a consequence of advances in photographic technology which increased the range of physical manifestations of wedding albums. We find the term wedding album should not be restricted to a traditional form which allowed the removal and insertion of photographs. Such a restriction would be contrary to the Community principle of equal treatment which ensures that similar goods in competition with each other, are not treated differently for the purpose of value added tax. We conclude that the Appellant's wedding book was to all intents and purposes a wedding album. 25. We find that the Appellants' wedding book did not come within the ordinary meaning of a book. The wedding book in essence was a collection of photographs which was of interest only to the persons immediately connected with the wedding. The text included in the book was optional, and if incorporated did not convey information and had no value in its own right. The functional characteristics of the wedding book as a wedding album outweighed its physical similarities to a book. We hold that the Appellants' supplies of a wedding book were standard rated for VAT purposes.”