How to fix Britain’s barmy VAT regime

Biscuits are VATVAT,VATtricky tax terrain. One way they can fall foul of Britain’s value-added tax (), a consumption levy, is to have an overindulgent chocolate coating. But how much is too much? A McVitie’s chocolate digestive faces 20% a conventional one 0%. A chocolate-chip cookie is safe. So is a gingerbread man, so long as he has chocolate only in dots for his eyes. Add any more and he is taxed at 20%.Keep digging and the perversity continues. Children’s clothes, newspapers (including this one), cruises, solar-panel installations, bicycle helmets, coffins and sports lessons all also sidestep .