Walkers' Sensations Poppadoms vs. HMRC: The Chip of Theseus

Summary

When does a potato cease to be a potato? It’s a question that has plagued some of Britain’s finest legal minds for at least some time this year.Last January, FT Alphaville treated readers to 3,400 crunchy words on Walkers Snack Foods Ltd v Commissioners for His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, a First-Tier Tax Tribunal case concerning Walkers’ attempts to get VAT taken off their Sensations Poppadoms products.HMRC — the UK’s tax authority — had slapped Sensations Poppadoms with a standard 20 per cent duty, on the grounds that they fell within the non-exempt category that includes:potato crisps, potato sticks, potato puffs, and similar products made from the potato, or from potato flour, or from potato starchWalkers, attempting to avoid the levy, argued without success that the products were actually more akin to conventional poppadoms, which are zero rated as a foodstuff. Just over a year after we published, Walkers and HMRC were in court again, with the former appealing the FTT decision in front of the Upper Tribunal. A judgment landed on Friday — did Walkers finally get the run of HMRC, or was the crisps giant left feeling salty?You say potato, we say warzoneTo rapidly summarise a complicated courtroom clash, Walkers tried the following arguments to get Sensations Poppadoms off the VAT hook:They are not ready for human consumptionThey are not a potato productThey don’t *taste* like a potato productThey’re not like crispsThey’re not like crisps because they’re part of a mealThey’re not like crisps because they aren’t packaged like crispsThey’re not like crisps because they are called poppadomsThey’re not like crisps because they don’t look like crispsThey’re not like crisps because they don’t work like crispsThey’re not like crisps because they don’t do the same things in your mouth that crisps doThey’re not like crisps because the public doesn’t think of them like crispsTaxing Sensations Poppadoms but not conventional poppadoms will distort UK marketsThese were duly ...