VAT on Rotisserie Chickens: Tribunal Rules on Heat-Retentive Packaging and “Hot Food” Criteria

• The case concerned whether Morrison’s cool-down rotisserie chickens (CDRCs) were zero-rated or standard-rated for VAT, focusing on five statutory tests for “hot food.”
• The Tribunal found CDRCs were not heated for hot consumption and not marketed as hot, but they were kept hot and supplied in heat-retentive packaging.
• Specialized chicken bags were found to significantly retain heat and were the result of a meaningful design process.
• Only one test needs to be met for standard-rating; thus, CDRCs were standard-rated due to packaging and heat retention, regardless of Morrison’s intentions.
• Morrison’s legitimate expectation claim was rejected due to lack of clear HMRC ruling and nondisclosure of key facts.

Source: bailii.org

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.

---

---