Cruel and unusual complexity in VAT
Posted by Christie Malry on January 31, 2012 at 9:19 pm
Via @jjpoconnell and @rorymeakin, I'm led to this:
VFOOD5540 – Excepted items: Ice cream etc: Other frozen desserts
Gateaux and cakes
Frozen gateaux and cakes, including cheesecakes, which have to be thawed completely to be eaten are zero-rated but those containing ice cream are standard-rated. Baked alaska, which requires further cooking, is zero-rated.
Cheesecakes
Frozen cheesecakes which are usually eaten fully defrosted are zero-rated. A recent development has been the introduction of cheesecake type desserts which can be eaten either straight from the freezer or after just a few minutes at room temperature. These are zero- rated as they are more akin to traditional cheesecakes than to ice cream, ice lollies, frozen yoghurt and water ices.
Mousse and similar products
Mousse and other types of chilled desserts which have to be completely thawed before eating are zero-rated. Such products can be distinguished from ice cream by the fact that they contain agents which maintain their texture when thawed.
How can it possibly be in the public interest for there to be rules at this level of minute detail about the whys and wherefores of what is and is not standard rated for VAT?
H/T.
Discrimination against ice-cream manufacturers, I'd call it. The Italians should be up in arms.
This is what you get from a decadent society where the politicians and bureaucrats have nothing real to do.
How long was the fight about whether Jaffa Cakes are cakes (zero-rated) or biscuits (standard rate) last? How much did it cost?
I'm all for the rules being (much, much) simpler but there is a public interest in issues being obvious from the regulations rather than having to be tested in court.
Because simply zero-rating or exempting all food would not keep so many Eurocrats and HMRC drones in a job.