Collagen drink not food for VAT purposes: There have seen many cases over the years about the boundaries between cakes and biscuits for VAT purposes but the dispute in Bottled Science Ltd v HMRC [2024] UKFTT 592 (TC) (4 July) was over a more fundamental issue: was the product food? The company sold a skin treatment which had to be consumed in liquid form. The definition of food in the VAT acts includes drink but that does not as the judge explained mean that every drink is automatically food.
In the end looking at the matter in the round the FTT found that the product was not food. The key factor in leading to this decision was the way that it was packaged and marketed: ‘its general appearance reminded us of something one might find in a chemist’s shop rather than a grocer’s’.
The decision includes a...
