To think the government should put VAT on cake

[72hoursinaande]

its a luxury to eat cake and would probably put more back into the coffers.
Slightly tongue in cheek but I thought mumsnet could use a different VAT debate.

A ship's biscuit, and be grateful!

As long as it not red velvet or carrot cake

😂 😂 😂

I'm one of these weirdos who finds the vat rules on food absolutely fascinating. Bonkers. But fascinating at the same time. And grateful I don't work in vat as such!

There have been some crazy cases surrounding vat on food items.

Results 50/50 so far!

A bit harsh. Even Marie Antoinette thought us plebs ought to be able to have cake.

I'm an accountant and it's all a pain in the neck, especially trying to explain unfathomable rules to clients.

Latest was a little cake/sandwich shop. An absolute nightmare trying to set up their till as some things were cooked to eat such as bacon baps (i.e. hot foot, so takeaway, so VATable) whilst others were cooked because they had to be cooked, such as pies and bread (so food, so zero rated even if sold hot as straight out of the oven). Then they sell a mix of cakes and biscuits. But the hardest for them to understand was sandwich platters. If they sell all the components packaged separately, i.e. wrapped sandwiches, plus pots of salad dressings, plus a pack of sausage rolls, plus a pack of pork pies, then a box of mixed salad, for the customer to unpack and lay out themselves, it's zero rated as it's food, but it they lay it all out on platters and all the customer has to do is remove the cling film/foil, it's catering, so standard rated!

All so needlessly complicated.

@taxguru oh I get you! I'm a tax advisor but only deal minimally with vat and not on food generally. But I do find it fascinating - primarily as I dont work in it, so I dont need to explain it to clients

When I was doing my exams, my boss asked me to research the vat treatment of chocolate covered fruit - the rules are bonkers.

Vat as a whole is bonkers rules.

Yes, clients look at you as if you're an idiot when you try to explain some of the rules. I think clients generally expect tax rules to actually make sense, but lots of time, they defy logic!

It always reminds me of my tax lecturer at Uni decades ago. His first words of his first lecture was something like "You shouldn't try to understand the reasoning and logic behind the tax rules - all you need to do is LEARN the rules and LEARN how to apply them - and don't waste your time thinking as to why - it would drive you mad!" He was a very wise man indeed!

@taxguru a wise man indeed! The vat rules in particular do defy logic.