How Much VAT? by Tenfold

Is there VAT on branded sweets and chocolate?

Branded sweets and chocolate are standard-rated (20% VAT) in the UK under HMRC VAT Notice 701/14, paragraph 3.6.

Sweets are twenty per cent.Cakes aren't.I don't make the rules.I merely enforce them.
SWEETS

Branded sweets and chocolate

20% VAT

Sweets and chocolate count as confectionery, which is standard-rated. (Cakes and most biscuits are 0%, but biscuits coated or part-coated in chocolate are 20%.)

HMRC VAT Notice 701/14, paragraph 3.6

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Why are branded sweets and chocolate 20%?

This sits in the food notice rather than the print one, and it is here because branded sweets turn up on print orders. Standard-rated confectionery includes chocolates, sweets and candies, chocolate biscuits, and any other items of sweetened prepared food normally eaten with the fingers, which takes in lollipops, mints, gums, marshmallow and sweetened popcorn. Cakes are zero-rated, and so are plain biscuits, but a biscuit coated or part-coated in chocolate is standard-rated. The printing on the wrapper has no bearing on any of it: what is being supplied is food, and the food rules decide the rate.

What decides it?

What is inside the wrapper. Sweets and chocolate are 20%, cakes and plain biscuits are 0%.

Where does this come from?

HMRC VAT Notice 701/14, paragraph 3.6, HMRC's guidance on food products. See the notices we work from.

Some real jobs

  • Branded mints in a printed wrapper20%

    Sweets are standard-rated confectionery, and the wrapper is not what is supplied.

  • Chocolate bars with a printed sleeve20%

    Chocolate is named as standard-rated confectionery.

  • Branded flapjacks0%

    Flapjacks are listed on the zero-rated side with cakes.

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