Ask an expert: VAT on hot food

Question

My client operates a kiosk on a railway station which sells takeaway food including pasties. The pasties are bought and then cooked in an oven on the premises. Once they come out of the oven they are displayed and kept in an illuminated display cabinet. They are not kept warm but many of them are still hot when customers buy them as they are cooked ready for the morning rush hour. My client has always accounted for VAT on these sales but after hearing about the proposed change in the Budget regarding hot food sales he thinks that he should not have done so. Can he now claim a refund of the VAT paid?

Answer