Food retailers will today be faced with the new rules set out by the government to put VAT on certain hot takeaway goods.
Announced earlier this year by Chancellor George Osborne as part of the Budget, bakers, coffee shops, cafés and food-to-go retailers serving up products such as toasted sandwiches will be forced to add 20% VAT on to products.
Stephen Coleclougg, tax partner at PricewaterhouseCooper, told The Telegraph: “Today’s VAT changes will be an extra sting for people already counting the pennies. Hot sandwiches are just the thing as the weather closes in, but a ham and cheese toastie of £2.50 will now cost an extra 50p.”
Subway has already petitioned against the move, with the sandwich retailer receiving hundreds of thousands of signatures from supporters to abolish the tax on its products.
The company set up an e-petition to gain more support, which read: “Please sign this petition to show your support for the hard-pressed sandwich shop owners who are being unfairly penalised by the Chancellor. The sandwich shop industry, which employs tens of thousands of hard-working people and supports thousands of small businesses, is now being placed under threat.
“We are not asking for the government to reverse its recent U-turn but to remove the tax across the board, just as they have done in Europe. We are simply asking for toasted sandwiches to be treated like pasties.”
Back in May, bakers from up and down the UK managed to win the fight against the government to prevent a 20% tax being implemented on hot bakery goods such as pies and pasties.
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