Hello. We buy tea, coffee, milk and so on for staff refreshment and are looking at buying a microwave. Can we reclaim the VAT on these things? Looking around online on various sites I’ve read replies saying you can and others saying you can’t!
Thanks.
Hi,
I am not an accountant but as far as I know tea, coffee and milk are zero rated items, means nothing to claim back.
If you can claim back VAT on the microwave, I think that is more a question for your accountant.
If you pay input VAT on items that are “wholly and exclusively” for business purposes, and this would include supplies for the staff room, then you can reclaim the input VAT. As to whether there is input VAT charged on the items, @rhc is correct that there is no VAT on items like milk, tea & coffee but the microwave is likely to have VAT on it, and biscuits may or may not have. For some reason biscuits are really complicated but see section 3.4.2 for more guidance! Food products (VAT Notice 701/14) - GOV.UK
Indeed, I’ve had situations in the past where I’ve imported two very similar biscuits from Germany at the same cost price, but had to sell one for 20% more than the other because it had a drizzle of chocolate on top.
Biscuits with chocolate chips baked into the dough - zero rated, biscuits baked plain and then wholly or partly coated with chocolate once cooled - 20%. Except jaffa cakes, which are considered cakes (0%) rather than chocolate-covered biscuits (20%) 
Haha yes, the Jaffa cakes farce! 
This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.