Are poor people fat?

[Jeremy]

Coman - wasn't my intention to be pedantic, I just remembered the jaffa cake saga... that's all.

I guess it's down to distinguishing between sustenance and treats/confection/etc... the classification's always going to be pretty subjective.

[Huguenot]

So let me get this straight: rice cakes are free of VAT unless you turn them into confectionery right?

There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with that?

Also in your list are inedible decorations - erm... You're annoyed about bits of plastic not being classed as food?

[Coman]

Although these distinctions all seem rather bizarre to us as consumers, they could be a big deal to a large confectioners and as such there is reams of case law on the subject, and the guidance on the HMRC website is pretty detailed.

I now realise my first post on this forum was a bit of a generalisation. The point is that luxury foods are often fattening, and have extra tax on them. Taken in isolation, from a pure tax perspective a poorer person may well be slimmer, because of the VAT treatment for instance of chocolate covered biscuits.

On the other hand, even slimming products, that are confectionery like, or have the appearance and taste of chocolate, and they often do, will have VAT added to them.

I hope my guidance has been helpful.

[LondonMix]

This reminds me of that story a while back in which Pringles was arguing for tax purposes that they weren't a potato chip because there was hardly any potato in them!

[Annette Curtain]

Is the hole in a ring doughnut or a Brick Lane Beigel VAT-able ?