The decision to appeal followed a ruling at the First Tier Tribunal in January that Walkers had to pay the 20% rate of VAT on sales of Sensations Poppadoms, which retail for around £1.50 a pack.

This followed a decision by HMRC in June 2021 that the products should be standard rated for VAT purposes.

Walkers argued that the snack fell within Item I of Group I of Part II to Schedule 8 VAT which states that it was ‘food of a kind used for human consumption’ and that the snack did not fall into any of the exempt items of the category.

According to HMRC, the product did not meet the criteria as they were ‘products [similar to potato crisps, potato sticks, potato puffs] made from the potato, or from potato flour, or from potato starch’, and were ‘packaged for human consumption without further preparation’.

The First Tier Tribunal ruled that the poppadoms had ‘more than enough potato’ to be classified under Note 5.

‘Nominative determinism 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,’ the tribunal concluded.

A date for the appeal has not been set.

Walkers loses VAT appeal over Sensations Poddadoms | 18 Jan 2024