| 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 then 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. |
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on the label  |
in the wax  |
in the wax  |
on the label  |
on the label  |
embossed  |
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| HISTORY
OF PURCHASE TAX CHANGES & CODE STAMPS
The codes used, rates, and dates introduced.
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