Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Of Tax and Jaffa Cakes

I'll be the first to admit I don't know a huge amount about taxation. After the speculation yesterday about whether there would be a cut in the rate of VAT, I was idly wondering to my colleague this morning about whether that would be the best way to help those who were struggling. After all, weren't things like food and fuel zero rated anyway? Wouldn't it be better for there to be a cut in income tax so that each household could see an increase in their take home pay for them to spend according to their needs?

Anyway, this led on to a discussion about jaffa cakes. My colleage half remembered hearing something about them being classed as cakes for taxation purposes - because they were cakes, they did not attract VAT. About two seconds on Google provided us with confirmation that this was indeed the case.

I then randomly altered my Facebook status to say that I now knew that Jaffa Cakes were not biscuits and e-mailed a few fellow jaffa cake lovers to brighten up their day. Well, then the floodgates opened - my friends then began an almost forensic debate on the subject which meandered from the gruesome (rigor mortis) to the downright smutty (can't say on a family blog). There is, however, a general sense of agreement that Jaffa Cakes, whatever they are, are one of life's pleasures.

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3 comments:

Joe Otten said...

Cake/biscuit is an important distinction - if you have ever read Jasper FForde's "The Fourth Bear", you will know.

Duncan Borrowman said...

And you didn't even see the emails away from your Facebook profile!

Jennie Rigg said...

The difference between a cake and a biscuit is that cakes go hard when they go off, but biscuits go soft.

I don't know the pleasures of jaffa cakes, since I am allergic to chocolate...

* sniffle *

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