Untitled Document

The British government started to tax luxury goods during World War two, and of course records came under this heading. Record companies EMI, Phillips and Decca (and subsiduaries) had the idea of marking discs with a two letter code to indicate the rate of tax that was charged. The discs
were either marked with this code in the run off area or had it embossed in to the central area.
If a disc had been produced with a particular tax code marking and the rate was altered before the disc was distributed a stick or stamp was then attached.
The Taxcode stamps had no monitary value and were mostly a mystery to the people buying the records. They served no other purpose than to indicate to retailers the income tax that was charged on the sale of the discs. It was used so that dealers returning unsold stock could be credited with the same tax that had been paid.

1940

1942

1943

1946

1947

1948

I
T

X
T

1950

1953

1955

1957

1959

1960

1961

1962

1963

R/T (1956)
on the label

XT (1958)
in the wax

ET (1959)
in the wax

ET (1959)
on the label

K/T (1963)
on the label

KT (1968)
embossed

HISTORY OF PURCHASE TAX CHANGES & CODE STAMPS
The codes used, rates, and dates introduced.

21 Oct. 40 - T Purchase Tax introduced 33.3%
1   Jan. 42 - price increase
15 Apr. 42 - DT Purchase Tax increase 66.6%
13 Apr. 43 - TT Purchase Tax increase 100% !!
10 Apr. 46 - ST Purchase Tax reduction 33.3%
13 Nov. 47 - LT Purchase Tax increase 50%
9   Apr. 48 - DT(48) Purchase Tax increase 66.6% CT on Decca
30 Dec. 50 - AT price increase
15 Apr. 53 - NT Purchase Tax reduction 50%
27 Oct. 55 - RT Purchase Tax increase 60%
31 Oct. 55 - price increase
27 Aug. 56 - price reduction
1   Jun. 57 - XT price increase (not on Decca)
8   Apr. 59 - ET Purchase Tax reduction 50%

1   Aug. 60 - WT price changes on some series
26 Jul.   61 - OT Purchase Tax increase 55% and price changes
10 Apr. 62 - ZT Purchase Tax reduction 45% and price changes
26 Nov. 62 - PT price changes on some series
1   Jan. 63 - MT Purchase Tax reduction 25%
1   Jul. 63 - KT price changes
21 Jul. 66 - Purchase Tax increase 27.5%
20 Mar. 68 - Purchase Tax increase 50%
23 Nov. 68 - Purchase Tax increase 55%
20 Jul.   71 - Purchase Tax reduction 45%
21 Mar. 72 - Purchase Tax reduction 25%
2   Apr. 73 - Purchase Tax replaced by V.A.T.