January 22, 2024
Article
Walkers has just lost a case on whether its Sensations Poppadoms should be classified as potato crisps, which are standard rated, or are zero-rated, as per traditional poppadoms.
The latter, however, are usually large and made from gram flour, whereas Sensations Poppadoms are potato based, and size and texture wise, are quite similar to crisps. At one point in HMRC’s (non-binding) guidance, it mentions poppadoms in a long list of items that can be zero-rated, without then giving the caveat that this doesn’t apply if they are made of potato/potato flour/potato starch and are similar to crisps.
In fairness to HMRC, if you read its guidance beyond the simple list, there is quite a lengthy section explaining that savoury crisps containing a substantial amount of potato products are standard- rated.
A point made by Walkers was that it had called the product “poppadoms”, so, it argued, the product should be zero-rated based on HMRC’s uncaveated list. The tribunal dismissed this argument, saying “Nominative determinism (author’s note-I had to look up what this meant!) is not a characteristic of snack foods: calling a snack food "Hula Hoops" does not mean that one could twirl that product around one's midriff, nor is "Monster Munch" generally reserved as a food for monsters.”