Added VAT flavour
Marks & Spencer's recent victory in the courts, in which it established that its chocolate teacakes are cakes, not biscuits, means we won't have to pay VAT on these goodies. The case had other benefits. It revealed that gingerbread men decorated with chocolate count as biscuits eligible for VAT unless the chocolate amounts to no more than a couple of dots for eyes. However, bourbon and other biscuits where the chocolate forms a sandwich layer, with no chocolate on the outside, are zero-rated. Chocolate shortbread incurs VAT, but “millionaire's” shortbread where the chocolate is separated from the shortbread by a caramel layer is zero-rated. Isn't it nice of the EU to give us this delightful VAT regime to make life more fascinating for us all?
Michael Gove, MP