Samples Given to the General Public via a Third Party

You might decide to give free samples to advertise your products to members of the public. You could do this by engaging a third party, such as a business promotions company, to distribute them.

Or you could give the samples to a client so that they can give one to each of their customers.

An example would be a sweet manufacturer that gives retailers samples of a new chocolate bar to give to customers so they can try it.

VAT is not payable on samples given to the general public by a third party if you meet all of the following conditions:

• neither you nor the third party charge for them
• you supply them for genuine business reasons and they are a typical example of your products
• the final customer receives only one example of each product
• the samples remain your property until they are given to the final customer
• any samples that aren't used are returned to you or destroyed