Content
Winter Of Discontent
CGT Winners
CGT Losers
Shifty Business
Anything To Declare?
Long Arm Of The Law
Irreplaceable You
Earn As You Pay
Ask Questions Later
Capital Ideas
ISA ISA ISA
Referee!
Go Green
VAT Or No VAT?
Taking The Register
Close Encounters
May Contain Nuts
Going Concern
Ancient History
Business And Pleasure
Do Your Duty
Know Your Rights
Time To Go?
Passing The Buck
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VAT on food is a great mystery. "Confectionery" is supposed to carry VAT, but what exactly does that mean? Then again, cakes and biscuits - apart from chocolate biscuits - are VAT-free. There are regular arguments in court about cereal bars, which HMRC think should be VATable - and they generally are. A recent case considered whether a cereal bar was like a flapjack, because since 1973 Customs have had a policy that flapjacks are zero-rated. Yes, Customs have a policy on flapjacks... and they argued that this was a generous concession that they couldn't justify but didn't want to take away. They wanted to apply the letter of the law to cereal bars, which weren't around in 1973 so they weren't covered by the policy. The Tribunal chairman confessed that he couldn't see much sense in all this, but Customs were right - cereal bars are VATable.  |