Pasty tax strikes again

[abendgules]

Can anyone work out the logic? I bring it up because some VAT changes start today.

Who's going to police whether your pasty is hot from the oven, or came out 5 mins ago, and is still hot?

Logically, if it's a hot takeaway food, it should be taxed as all the others are.

But then logically, if it's a food, it shouldn't be taxed. Food isn't taxed, right?

Comments

[ingaborg.livejournal.com]

The logic is, that the government wants to increase tax revenue.

And they don't seem to have grasped the concept that if it costs more, people will buy less of it, thus reducing tax revenue.

And all administrators believe that over-complicated rules are a Good Thing and won't cost more to administer than they are worth, despite all prior experience.

Go figure...

[grnjenny.livejournal.com]

holy hannah, that's confusing.

I was gonna say that the US has it structured more simply... but now I'm not sure.

Many states do not tax unprepared food (things you buy in the grocery stores) but do tax food at restaurants. That's pretty straight-forward.

But I don't know if I get charged tax to buy a hot rotisserie chicken at the grocery store...

Essential vs luxury

[larmer.livejournal.com]

Governments don't like to tax 'grocery food' as it is considered an essential and that tax would be hard on the poor. Taxing of 'restaurant food' is generally considered acceptable as restaurant food is not essential and is considered a luxury so it will not disadvantage the poor. Obviously some rules have to be made as to where do you draw the line between groceries and restaurant food essentially with my food stores selling prepared food to take away. As you may recall in Canada with the VAT tax here (GST or HST) a purchase of under 6 pastries or donuts is considered restaurant food but six or more is considered groceries. Policing is done by tax inspectors who look at cash register tapes and how things are charged - one of the reasons for cash registers. There clear as mud? :)

When the GST was introduced in Canada IIRC the Canadian consumer association told the Government to tax everything but at a lower tax rate just to keep it simple for consumers and merchants. The Government did not follow their advice and now there is a whole range of taxed and non-taxed items.

[idaho-smith.livejournal.com]

I still haven't seen the temp-regulations that apply here.

Are the range of applicable temperatures that apply for the food-safety regs, identical to or different from, the Tax-Law?

Is there a sweet-spot, where your food can be warm enough to be palatable, hot enough to exclude germs, but cool enough to legitimately avoid Tax?

Will (Sooner or Later) the Taxman be 'seen' to be 'forcing' impoverished old Granny-Bloggs to eat a meat-pie too cool to exclude the hardiest of food-spoilage bugs resulting in her unfortunate demise and a vindictive law-suit?