Freebies are VAT-free

The taxpayer EMI as part of its promotion of new recordings had since 1986 given free copies in various formats of those recordings to individuals working in the press radio stations television programmes advertising agencies retail outlets and cinemas to assess the commerciality and viability of the recording.

In addition it used promoters known as ‘pluggers’ i.e. people in the audiovisual media and press who distributed those recordings also free of charge to their own specifically targeted contacts.

When a new recording was about to be released the company distributed between 2 500 and 3 750 copies free of charge. A single plugger might receive up to 600 free copies for redistribution. In addition copies were sometimes sent separately to a number of people working for the same organisation e.g. the BBC.

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