Right. Leave the cheese and bacon turnovers alone, George.

Anagram you are quite right. If you have two shops one a Greggs, the other a fish and chip shop and you ordered a steak pie, the fish and chip shop will have to charge V.A.T. It would be simpler to say the V.A.T. is charged for the service provided of heating or baking the pie for consumption. The crackers idea of what is or what is not the ambient temperature is the ridiculous problem. It was the loophole and unfairness of the trading conditions that Osborne had identified but in a shangrila world we would agree food should be V.A.T. exempt as we can't live without it. LONG LIVE THE PIE![although my hips don't agree, suidgey pie b-m]

Oh right.

I just know he shouldn't do it! It's not fair!

And all this talk is making me want to eat one!

No, the Pasty Tax is nothing to do with stuff being 'eaten in' jingl. It's just to differentiate between cold and heated food. Fish and chips, for example, already attract VAT whether eaten in or out, and fish and chipperies were a bit miffed that pasties were getting away with it....!

So now, a hot pastie is classed as an 'eaten in' food, even though there are no tables and chairs in the shop, and you will go and eat it in the park?

How does that work?

But wouldn't ice cream eaten in the cafe be served in a dish and, therefore, more labour involved (washing up etc)? Surely it would have to be more expensive.

I'm nit picking now, Aren't I?

I don't know if I believe that at all! Anyway, why would GO need to 'copy' Germany? He can make up his own rubbish rules!

This is copy of German VAT laws. There was a difference to foods bought at a counter and taken home to eat and those foods eaten inside. Your icecream inside the café was dearer than the one eaten on the street. In Germany the icecream now costs the same whether you eat it inside or outside as does the coffee or the chips. This was to simplify the VAT, not to make it more complicated. However it is more than his job is worth for George Osborne to say he copied it from Germany( dirty word in the UK) so he presented it as his own idea and added on the bit about warm or cold.

jess I feel excited for you, have a great time.

Carol
Vat is a nightmare of inconsistency. Some foods Vat rated and others not. Paper books vat rated and electronic books not (should be the other way round, says the newly published e-book author!)
Sanitary towels and tampons vat rated, shaving kit not. (apparently Sts not a basic essential, doh!) (I think this has never changed - am I right?)
I reckon he should have put 10p tax on plastic bags. Think how much dosh that would bring in (until we changed our wasteful ways)
We are treated this week to a bit of a circus.
Dave "I'm really not posh, honest, I like pasty as much as the next man."
George "People eat pasties? Pies? Pastry with gooey meat in the middle? In the street? Do people really do that? I'm sure they are all life long labour voters..."
Ed - photographed eating pies. The pie agenda suits him because he doesn't want to back a strike that would damage the economy and p everyone off. The drivers, who do perform a very responsible job, do get paid pretty well for it. Not exactly downtrodden victims of capitalism. But their union is a major contributor to his party.
Govt, as a desperate counter move, trying to distract people (including pie-eating pensioners) from budget, creating a fuel shortage by urging people to panic buy.

(I need to get up. I have about 25 tedious admin tasks to do, and some last minute shopping before I head for the Air New Zealand checkin tomorrow. Have a nice day grans x)

Another daft rule was that cakes were subject to VAT and biscuits were not (or was it the other way round?). Apparently, you can tell the difference because a biscuit goes soft when it ages and a cake hardens. The big debate was about jaffa cakes, I think.
You really would think that parliament had more important things to discuss.

This is one of the funniest threads I've read. I have visions oif a long line of Gransnetters waiting patiently in Gregg's while our cheese and onion pies go cold before we pay for them!

And apparently it depends on the weather, too!
If the pie's temperature is the same as the ambient temp outside, it won't attract VAT (so lukewarm on a day like today would be OK). But if it were a cold winter's day, and the pie was lukewarm, you'd have to pay VAT! I'm not making this up....

Just as ridiculous as the impositioin of VAT on sandwiches etc from the likes of Costa or Starbucks if you eat in, while "take away" is VAT free.

Did you see the good doctor put together the constituent parts of sausage rolls/pork pies on Supersize/Superskinny last night including a pig's tail!!!

Ah , another bit of back of the envelope legislation then!

The interviewer on the radio, this morning, also suggested that you wait until they were cool, before buying them!

That thought did strike me Glam

How will the system work when the pies/pasties etc have just come out of the oven in the shop and are still warm,will be be charged extra even if we are taking them home for later,or do we stay in the shop until they are cold and then buy them

I think you can get just as fat on cold pies, Greatnan!

Is this part of the fight against obesity?