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Posted Tue, 01 Aug 2023 09:06:04 GMT by
Hi HMRC Colleagues, I am selling a baby feeding set, which contains six products. These products are a bib, bowl, plate, cup, fork and spoon. Would I be eligible for 0% VAT? I check with Amazon, and their VAT guidance state below "Most items of baby wear are eligible for a VAT rate of 0%. In addition, UK VAT legislation also identifies the following less obvious baby items as eligible for a VAT rate of 0%: Bibs, including plastic bibs with a curved tray at the base" According to the above information, it seems that our products are eligible for 0%. I also checked HMRC VAT guidance and could not find any specific VAT notice related to the baby feeding sets. Could you please provide some clarification and advice? Thank you in advance and help. Best regards.
Posted Tue, 01 Aug 2023 13:50:19 GMT by Jay Cooke
Always best to use HMRC's actual guidance and if something is not specifically mentioned in the guidance, such as feeding sets, then assume it doesn't apply to whatever Notice you are reading. Young children's clothing and footwear (VAT Notice 714) - GOV.UK
Is a bowl, a plate, a cup and cutlery the same as a bib?
The zero rating is specifically for children's clothing and bibs are deemed to be clothing as they are worn by babies almost all the time and HMRC accept plastic bibs can still be clothing as they too are worn on the body.
Do babies wear spoons, cups and forks as clothing? Not intentionally!
Sounds like a single supply made up of a mixture of VAT rates, you may need to decide what the dominant supply is, out of your 6 items only the bib is zero rated, the rest are standard rated.
If you take a Christmas hamper it consists of zero rated foods and standard rated alcohol or goods like the basket itself, maybe a chopping board or some cheese knives, so you have to apportion the VAT accordingly, you can't just say the whole hamper is zero rated because there is a single packet of biscuits in the contents.
Worth reading this link and its subsequent pages which shed light as to how HMRC thinks/approaches this topic.
VATSC11113 - Supply: Single and multiple supplies: HMRC’s approach: The general approach - HMRC internal manual - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Also useful and informative article here which contains further links to HMRC guidance which has recently been updated https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tax/business-tax/guidance-updated-on-apportioning-multiple-supplies
Posted Wed, 02 Aug 2023 12:43:23 GMT by HMRC Admin 13 Response

Hi. Baby feeding sets would not be zero rated for VAT per se.
However children's and babies clothing is zero rated. Please see the guidance below:
Young children's clothing and footwear (VAT Notice 714) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) section 2
If you are selling a set with different VAT liabilities then please see the guidance below to see how this would be treated:
VAT guide (VAT Notice 700) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Section 8
VATSC11113 - Supply: Single and multiple supplies: HMRC’s approach: The general approach - HMRC internal manual - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

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