Britain | Put VAT on everything

How to fix Britain’s barmy VAT regime

Britain’s second-most-important tax is riddled with holes

A layer of chocolate is applied to McVitie's Milk Chocolate Digestive biscuits.
Photograph: Getty Images

Biscuits are tricky tax terrain. One way they can fall foul of Britain’s value-added tax (VAT), a consumption levy, is to have an overindulgent chocolate coating. But how much is too much? A McVitie’s chocolate digestive faces 20% VAT, a conventional one 0%. A chocolate-chip cookie is safe. So is a gingerbread man, so long as he has chocolate only in dots for his eyes. Add any more and he is taxed at 20%.

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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Put VAT on everything”

From the April 27th 2024 edition

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