09/07/2025
🍓🥪 The M&S Strawberry Sandwich: The New Jaffa Cake? 🧁💼
Marks & Spencer just dropped a wild one: a strawberry and cream sandwich. Think soft white bread, whipped cream, fresh strawberries. But while people argue whether it’s tasty or terrifying, we’re asking the real question: What’s the VAT treatment? 🤓
This feels like the 2025 sequel to the legendary Jaffa Cake case. Remember that?
🧠 McVitie’s argued Jaffa Cakes were cakes (zero-rated), not biscuits (some of which are standard-rated). HMRC disagreed.
📚 The court ruled in McVitie’s favour: Jaffa Cakes are cakes, despite being biscuit-sized and chocolate-covered.
So now we ask:
🧾 Is this strawberry sandwich:
A sandwich? (Likely zero-rated)
A dessert? (Still probably zero-rated)
A sweetened, packaged item intended for snacking? (That’s 20% VAT, friends.)
With cream, strawberries, and sponge-like vibes, is this really lunch — or cake in disguise?
📍Tax takeaway: When food doesn’t fit neatly in a box, expect a VAT headache.
Waiting to see how HMRC take a bite out of this one. 🍰👀