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Those who are not thrilled by the mention of VAT should hit the delete key! Mervyn Robertson had told me his experience on VAT a few weeks ago in view of our widely advertised policy on selling textHELP! VAT free where we think it correct to do so. I phoned Mervyn's contact at the VAT Charities Branch and discussed it with him. He confirmed his view that his policy was that dyslexia was not a disability, following a Tribunal judgement in a case involving the Dyslexia Institute. He wasn't able to tell me any details of the case, and I have not, as yet, been able to find our from the DI what the circumstances of the case were about, and why the DI accepted the Tribunal's ruling. However, he also confirmed that one Tribunal is not bound by the decisions of another, and that you can take a Tribunal ruling to a higher court if appropriate. It is also clear that different VAT offices do not always apply policy consistently. (We were recently given approval to supply a complete system zero rated, to my great surprise -- not for a dyslexic person). Without knowing the circumstances of the Tribunal case (and I will try again to find them out), I do not consider ourselves bound by it. There has been a lot more discovered about dyslexia in the last few years, and the DfEE's policy on the subject would, I should think, itself be a significant influence on any future tribunal judgement. It is also true that not all dyslexic people would want to argue that dyslexia is a disability. However, I have no problem reconciling the belief that there are often positive aspects to dyslexia, with the belief that typical attributes of dyslexia can lead to significant disabilities when it comes to dealing with the written word (amongst other things). Anyway, despite Mervyn's information, we are continuing to supply textHELP! VAT zero rated, when appropriate. We will also do so with Omni and any other products for dyslexia which seem to us clear cut. I think that this should probably include Keystone and the new Keyspell product, when it is available. (ie products which are designed to help people with a disability, when they are sold to individuals with a disability). Clearly, as Mervyn says, it is competitively unfair if some companies are charging VAT and others not, so I hope that Sight and Sound will have the courage to go with their own VAT office's view and join us. Incidentally, most of the time we charge VAT on textHELP!. Only if we know that the VAT is coming out of someone's own pocket do we go through the palaver of getting a VAT declaration filled in. If it is just a question, ultimately, of circulating the money around government departments (as with DSAs and sales to people who can deduct the input tax), we take the view that the less paper-work for all concerned, the better. Are we right? Regards Ian Litterick iANSYST Ltd Dyslectech Email [log in to unmask] The White House, 72 Fen Road, CAMBRIDGE, CB4 1UN, UK Tel(+44) (0)1223 42 01 01. Fax(+44) (0)1223 42 66 44 FREEPhone from UK only 0500 14 15 15 web url http://www.dyslexic.com %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%