united-kingdom tax-law
Fig roll legal status
<p>Is a fig roll (UK, fig bar in the US) taxed as a biscuit or a cake in the UK?</p>
<p>A Jaffa cake has been determined to be cake, not a biscuit, based in part on what happens when it goes stale. It is taxed at the lower VAT of a cake.</p>
<p>How is a fig roll taxed? Biscuit or cake?</p>

<p>The relevant guidance is <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/food-products-and-vat-notice-70114#confectionery" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>, at sections 3.4 and  3.6. It is surprisingly(?) confusing, the result of trying to account for exceptions both historical and otherwise motivated.</p>
<p>The biscuit/cake distinction is not the one to focus on, because some biscuits are zero-rated (I think this category is basically the fairly plain biscuits like custard creams or bourbons) and some are standard-rated (those with chocolate, but also some others as far as I can tell).</p>
<p>The following are supposed to be standard-rated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>biscuits wholly or partly covered in chocolate (or some product
similar in taste and appearance)</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>any item of sweetened prepared food,
other than cakes and non-chocolate biscuits, which is normally eaten
with the fingers</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Later, in the 'zero-rated' column of a table of examples we have both</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Cakes including sponge cakes, pastries, eclairs, meringues, flapjacks,
lebkuchen, marshmallow teacakes and Scottish snowballs</p>
</blockquote>
<p>and</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Biscuits coated with icing, caramel or some other product different in
taste and appearance from chocolate</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is some further clarification <a href="https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-food/vfood6200" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In most cases, the borderline between cakes and confectionery causes few problems, but there are products whose status as cakes is not self-evident. They will normally be marketed as cakes, through bakeries and supermarkets rather than through confectionery outlets, and will be displayed with cakes and biscuits rather than in the confectionery section. The style of packaging used will also normally follow the pattern for bakery products, with a number of individual portions boxed and cellophane wrapped so the contents are revealed. They are also usually eaten as part of a meal rather than between meals as confectionery.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Later in that page they discuss flapjacks vs. cereal bars and admit that flapjacks are classed differently because flapjacks were around when VAT was introduced and cereal bars weren't.</p>
<p>Based on this, <strong>I think fig rolls are likely classed as confectionery rather than cakes, so get standard-rated for tax.</strong> If they wanted to invest in the legal battle that Jaffa Cakes had, they might well win, but 'to the man on the street' they are a sweet product sold for eating between meals in its own packaging, and so they naturally fall into that intended category.</p>
<p>EDIT: After all that, I found <strong><a href="https://order.lewisfoods.co.uk/take-the-biscuit-fig-roll-x14" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this wholesaler</a> who states that fig rolls are zero-rated</strong>. Perhaps they do get classified as cakes or plain biscuits, then.</p>
