Food and drink
The Tax Tribunal has been dealing with important issues again – to go with ‘Jaffa Cakes are cakes, not biscuits’ and ‘Pringles are like crisps’, we now have ‘Lucozade Sport is a beverage, not a food’; concentrated iced tea is tea; and United Biscuits’ ‘Frisps’ are not like crisps because there’s more wheat flour in them than potato.
The UK’s rules on VAT and food famously don’t make sense. If you make or sell food, it’s important to be confident that HMRC won’t ask for VAT that you haven’t collected because you thought the product was zero-rated. If in doubt, ask for a ruling – get the VATman round for a cup of tea and a biscuit. Or maybe a cake.