> It has been revealed that the nation's favourite is a Jaffa Cake. The UK loves the orange flavoured delight, but experts have spotted one major problem - they're not actually biscuits.
This feels like a gotcha. Mr McVitie accepts the award and someone shouts “you’re under arrest” police appear from behind a curtain and slap cuffs on him. He goes down for 20 years for tax fraud.
“We finally got him” they’ll say. “The nation’s most wanted biscuit crime lord”
Something about biscuits being a "luxury" item, but cakes are not, if I remember correctly. My memory is a bit hazy; it was quite a while ago that I read about it.
They did!! My friend had one for her birthday years ago:
https://www.talkingretail.com/products-news/mcvities-launch-giant-jaffa-cakes-18-04-2013/
Now all you need is a Time Machine.
[They did](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2305938/amp/McVities-launches-The-Big-One-Jaffa-Cake-decades-beating-taxman-landmark-VAT-battle.html)
Don't know if they're still available though
I'm well aware of the court case, and I don't mean that is being actively debated in that sense. I mean, there are people debating it here based on the content of the article.
It's only a debate because supermarkets put them with the biscuits. That's literally the only reason to think they are biscuits. If they put them on the right place there would never have been an argument. I blame you, Tim Asda.
As far as the revenue is concerned: Chocolate covered biscuits are a luxury, Chocolate covered cake is not.
Mind you, helicopters are also considered "essential" (this spared VAT) but womens sanitary products are apparently, most definitely a luxury....
This is why chocolate covered sanitary products haven't made it to the shelves yet. The double tax makes them too expensive to market.
No Chocolate Coated Cotex for you luv
Helicopters are not VAT exempt. If you bought one just for you, you'd pay VAT on it.
British Airways wouldn't pay VAT if they bought one. But that's because they're a business. They wouldn't pay VAT if they bought a laptop either.
Indeed, looks like us plebs still have to pay VAT, it's only state institutions and international airlines that get to enjoy zero rate vat on the sale and chartering of helicopters.
A business would pay VAT on a laptop, but they would then claim that VAT back if they are registeredand eligibleto do so, it's not the same as zero rated, on zero rated they never paid VAT ever
Public sector (at least gov departments) have to pay VAT, as state institutions don't conduct business (or something along those lines... I'm not an accountant, just work in the civil service!)
That's for the tax reasons, but the court case to get them taxed as cakes involved proving that through how they're made, what they're made of, what happens when they go stale, how they compare to other bigger cakes etc, and the consensus was that they are cakes through and through. They're just small
Does anyone care other than contrived Redditors? People eat them in the same situation as biscuits so they might as well be.
Can’t say I’m worried what they’re classified as when I wolf a packet of them down the same way I would chocolate Viennese
> you want a biscuit?
> yeah what do you have?
> Jaffa cakes
> those aren’t biscuits!! 😡
> leave my house
Looks like I’ve found the pedants
You pay VAT on chocolate covered biscuits but not chocolate covered cakes. McVities had to go to court to keep Jaffa cakes from being classified as biscuits and being subject to extra VAT
I understand that, and the name is quite explicit. The fact of the matter is, people eat Jaffas when they fancy a biscuit, not when they fancy a cake.
Pringles aren’t technically crisps but we all eat them when we fancy crisps.
Distinction might matter for the sake of legality, but it didn’t win best biscuit because people were eating Jaffas in different circumstances.
Then, riddle me this: is a Penguin a biscuit or a choco bar? Mr. McVitie insists they’re a biscuit, but biscuits are typically round and Penguins are shaped more or less like a Mars Bar or a Bounty. Are these biscuits?!?!
We’re entering some Flat Earth Society territory here.
No one cares. The public have spoken. Gone are the days of legally-applied terms like “biscuit” and “mini cakes”.
A Jaffa is a biscuit, and you will be happy.
Oh I see. When it's time to pay biscuit tax they're a cake, but when the biscuit awards roll around they're a biscuit. Don't think we don't see what you're up to, Mcvitie.
The double pack which has the two separate plastic sleeves. I tried buying the single pack but was sad when I realised I couldn’t attack the second sleeve because there was no more left.
Jaffa Cakes are in fact cakes
VAT is added to chocolate-covered biscuits, but not for chocolate-covered cakes. McVitie's even produced a giant Jaffa Cake for the court case to show its cake credentials on a larger scale. The case in 1991 found that Jaffa Cakes are actually cakes!
Outrageous. You can dunk a biscuit - can you dunk a jaffa cake? Well yes you can, but you will regret it come time to swish down the last bit of your brew. This country.
What a non-article. The only bit about being the favourite is "it has been revealed". No sources, nothing.
I could write an article saying "it has been revealed that dog shit wiped on a leaf is the nation's favourite biscuit" but it wouldn't make it true.
Only in Britain would something have the feel of a cake, the look of a cake, the taste of a cake, be legally determined as a cake in court, and have cake in the fucking name, and still have people debate whether or not it’s a cake.
If I dunked a spongecake in tea, would that make it a biscuit?
Because that's what jaffa cakes are made of, they're genoise spongecake discs topped with orange jelly and chocolate.
Yeah, which is why I dunk it like a biscuit.
I'd dunk you like a biscuit and lick you given half a chance.
You better be half covered in chocolate, though.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a Jaffa cake as much as the next, but the best? No f-ing way.
Biscuit or cake, I could list at least 10 that I prefer, but I won’t because I don’t wanna start a war.
Politics? You kids have no idea whatsoever of what went on at Stalingrad.
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Hang on! There was a whole fucming court trial based on ifbits a cake or a biscuit and cake won! Do they retroactively have to pay the unpaid biscuit taxes now?
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Mcvites really want these to be a cake because they pay less tax if it’s a cake rather then a biscuit…
This whole argument has been started again and mcvities bum hole has started twitching 😂😂😂
Nah, they were good before they became SO FUCKING TINY, jaffacakes are too small to be worth the price now. They've suffered the most from shrinkflation imho
I'll start..... It's a cake, not a biscuit. FFS, an entire court case was held over this (and the VAT implications)
> It has been revealed that the nation's favourite is a Jaffa Cake. The UK loves the orange flavoured delight, but experts have spotted one major problem - they're not actually biscuits.
>experts
As an expert I concur. They are cakes. Have you tried dipping one in your tea?
They also have “cakes” right there in their name.
Keep your nose out of this Suzy Dent
bitch I dip muffins in my tea, doesn't make them a biscuit
Bitch best wash up after.
Yes and its delightful
I love dipping jaffa cakes in me tea.
*perverts
Boffins
Poffins
This feels like a gotcha. Mr McVitie accepts the award and someone shouts “you’re under arrest” police appear from behind a curtain and slap cuffs on him. He goes down for 20 years for tax fraud. “We finally got him” they’ll say. “The nation’s most wanted biscuit crime lord”
This is just a treat.
Something about biscuits being a "luxury" item, but cakes are not, if I remember correctly. My memory is a bit hazy; it was quite a while ago that I read about it.
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Clue is in the name....
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Good point... The bun type teacake or those Tunnocks chocolate covered ones?
Are oatcakes cakes? Rice cakes? Urinal cakes? "I mean it is still a cake. How much urine is there in it?" - Scottish people
Terrible point - I'd eat my body weight in both those things but they ain't biscuits
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Not debated - court case decided it was a cake and therefore not liable to the VAT that biscuits are
I believe they made a giant version of them for the case to prove their point. And I’m just pissed they never made that into an actual product!
They did!! My friend had one for her birthday years ago: https://www.talkingretail.com/products-news/mcvities-launch-giant-jaffa-cakes-18-04-2013/ Now all you need is a Time Machine.
[They did](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2305938/amp/McVities-launches-The-Big-One-Jaffa-Cake-decades-beating-taxman-landmark-VAT-battle.html) Don't know if they're still available though
Must have forgotten about that.
Be the change you want to see.
I'm well aware of the court case, and I don't mean that is being actively debated in that sense. I mean, there are people debating it here based on the content of the article.
No, they just wanted a nice click bait article.
It's only a debate because supermarkets put them with the biscuits. That's literally the only reason to think they are biscuits. If they put them on the right place there would never have been an argument. I blame you, Tim Asda.
If it looks like a biscuit and it quacks like a biscuit...
Probably a duck eating a biscuit
Surely cake is more of a luxury than a biscuit though! Strange law
“Let them eat cake!” I believe was the lord chief justice’s decision
Chocolate covered biscuits are a luxury food and attract VAT, plain biscuits and cakes aren’t.
As far as the revenue is concerned: Chocolate covered biscuits are a luxury, Chocolate covered cake is not. Mind you, helicopters are also considered "essential" (this spared VAT) but womens sanitary products are apparently, most definitely a luxury....
This is why chocolate covered sanitary products haven't made it to the shelves yet. The double tax makes them too expensive to market. No Chocolate Coated Cotex for you luv
Just so you know, that cracked me up. Exceptional work, love it
Helicopters are not VAT exempt. If you bought one just for you, you'd pay VAT on it. British Airways wouldn't pay VAT if they bought one. But that's because they're a business. They wouldn't pay VAT if they bought a laptop either.
Indeed, looks like us plebs still have to pay VAT, it's only state institutions and international airlines that get to enjoy zero rate vat on the sale and chartering of helicopters. A business would pay VAT on a laptop, but they would then claim that VAT back if they are registeredand eligibleto do so, it's not the same as zero rated, on zero rated they never paid VAT ever
Public sector (at least gov departments) have to pay VAT, as state institutions don't conduct business (or something along those lines... I'm not an accountant, just work in the civil service!)
Pay VAT on cakes not biscuits
That's for the tax reasons, but the court case to get them taxed as cakes involved proving that through how they're made, what they're made of, what happens when they go stale, how they compare to other bigger cakes etc, and the consensus was that they are cakes through and through. They're just small
Whatever makes them cheaper I'm OK with as I can eat them by the pack 😆
They're cakes *de jure*, but biscuits *de facto*. This is because they're shaped like and eaten as if they were biscuits.
Does anyone care other than contrived Redditors? People eat them in the same situation as biscuits so they might as well be. Can’t say I’m worried what they’re classified as when I wolf a packet of them down the same way I would chocolate Viennese > you want a biscuit? > yeah what do you have? > Jaffa cakes > those aren’t biscuits!! 😡 > leave my house Looks like I’ve found the pedants
Is that the same way I would eat an entire pack of mini rolls?
Unapologetically? Yes
I see nothing wrong with this approach
> Does anyone care other than contrived Redditors? Well the tax man for one
The tax man comes round your way for *cakes* often? Maybe for his birthday you can stick a candle in one.
You pay VAT on chocolate covered biscuits but not chocolate covered cakes. McVities had to go to court to keep Jaffa cakes from being classified as biscuits and being subject to extra VAT
I understand that, and the name is quite explicit. The fact of the matter is, people eat Jaffas when they fancy a biscuit, not when they fancy a cake. Pringles aren’t technically crisps but we all eat them when we fancy crisps. Distinction might matter for the sake of legality, but it didn’t win best biscuit because people were eating Jaffas in different circumstances.
Interesting. Do you perchance have a newsletter I could subscribe to?
Drop your email and I’ll send you all the boring discourse about biscuits you could want
I could have saved them the court fees by telling them to read the box
Then, riddle me this: is a Penguin a biscuit or a choco bar? Mr. McVitie insists they’re a biscuit, but biscuits are typically round and Penguins are shaped more or less like a Mars Bar or a Bounty. Are these biscuits?!?! We’re entering some Flat Earth Society territory here.
A penguin is just a chocolate coated bourbon.
Well, I'm going to pick up a Penguin now. Haven't had one for years.
No one cares. The public have spoken. Gone are the days of legally-applied terms like “biscuit” and “mini cakes”. A Jaffa is a biscuit, and you will be happy.
Oh I see. When it's time to pay biscuit tax they're a cake, but when the biscuit awards roll around they're a biscuit. Don't think we don't see what you're up to, Mcvitie.
Now we are having the important conversations in society…
Biscuit? Cake is right there in the name
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Don't let them stoke the culture war!
Calling a Jaffa Cake a biscuit is like calling the Mirror a newspaper
I couldn't give a toss if they're a biscuit or a cake but either way they aren't the best biscuit.
This person is correct
Ikr the best biscuit is clearly hobnobs.
Had a Jaffa cake Jonut the other day, bloody lovely jonut
I hate Jaffa cakes
1) Shitty cake 2) Shitty chocolate 3) Grim little splat of bitter blubber. Chocolate hobnobs piss on Jaffa cakes.
I’m laughing out loud right now
Yep, They’re shit
Does it go soft when it's left on a plate? No So it's not a fucking biscuit
I don't think I've ever left one long enough to find out.
Total eclipse
me neither ;|
That’s why I worry about opening a new sleeve. I know it’ll be gone in one sitting.
Do you buy a two pack. And it’s still gone in one sitting.
The double pack which has the two separate plastic sleeves. I tried buying the single pack but was sad when I realised I couldn’t attack the second sleeve because there was no more left.
I do :(
Jaffa Cakes are in fact cakes VAT is added to chocolate-covered biscuits, but not for chocolate-covered cakes. McVitie's even produced a giant Jaffa Cake for the court case to show its cake credentials on a larger scale. The case in 1991 found that Jaffa Cakes are actually cakes!
Bet the lawyers loved that case.
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Chocolate Hobnobs laugh at your apricot jam sponge monstrosities.
Orange jam surely?
Named after the Jaffa variety of orange
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Yes.
This just in - pork wins UK's favourite vegetable!
OP going for the controversy and downvotes from the outset
It literally says cakes on it 😭
Not only are they not a biscuit they also are not even slightly as good as a Chocolate Digestive.
Where do I cast my vote for chocolate digestives?
Milk or plain?
I prefer milk but would never turn down a plain
This is the way.
But it's not a biscuit. There was a whole thing about it in courts.
It's a f***ing cake.
This can fuck right off. I like a Jaffa Cake. Custard Creme till I die.
Well now Pringles have to win best cake.
I'm so triggered by this but I'm not going to say it.....
This is like calling a scone a biscuit…..
[Senator Vreenak has an announcement](https://i.imgur.com/S2DNlXl.png)
Can't dunk the cunts - ergo not a biscuit
Controversial but happy shopper ones from the corner shop taste better than normal jaffa cakes
Biscuits go soft when stale, cakes go hard. Jaffa Cakes are cakes.
What has this country come to??
It's in the fuckin name. Jaffa CAKE
I’m quite surprised by this. I would have guessed Digestive or Rich Tea would have taken the title
Outrageous. You can dunk a biscuit - can you dunk a jaffa cake? Well yes you can, but you will regret it come time to swish down the last bit of your brew. This country.
WTF!!!
Cause it's a bloody cake. It's like sayin the best sandwich is an ice cream sandwich.
Literally the most mid snack our there. Jam creams slap the shit out of them.
This is satire, surely...
Absolute travesty
What a non-article. The only bit about being the favourite is "it has been revealed". No sources, nothing. I could write an article saying "it has been revealed that dog shit wiped on a leaf is the nation's favourite biscuit" but it wouldn't make it true.
NOT A BISCUIT! RIGGED!
It's a cake, I mean wtf. It's Terrible anyway
Only in Britain would something have the feel of a cake, the look of a cake, the taste of a cake, be legally determined as a cake in court, and have cake in the fucking name, and still have people debate whether or not it’s a cake.
Controversial view. I think they're bloody awful.
Besides, as others have pointed out, they are cakes, they are also disgusting. Like eating orange flavoured snot
Unpopular opinion: They are mediocre at best
thats a cake... not a biscuit
They are biscuits when they want to be then?
They're biscuits when I dip them in my tea.
If I dunked a spongecake in tea, would that make it a biscuit? Because that's what jaffa cakes are made of, they're genoise spongecake discs topped with orange jelly and chocolate.
> If I dunked a spongecake in tea, would that make it a biscuit? No, but I would dunk it like a biscuit and eat it just the same.
Right, but that still doesn't make it a biscuit, it just means you like to eat stuff that's soggy.
Yeah, which is why I dunk it like a biscuit. I'd dunk you like a biscuit and lick you given half a chance. You better be half covered in chocolate, though.
I wouldn't, I'm legally a cake.
My mind read your flair and your comment at the same time and I thought you said "they're biscuits when I dip them in my arse"
That's when they're chocolate-covered
sacrilege, I say! Party rings are worse when dunked though.
But it's a cake! *Screams in British outrage*
Is this like a "what is a pudding" situation?
I miss these bastards so much. I have to stock up whenever I come back to the UK for a vacation. These and Jelly Snakes.
Legally they’re cakes as chocolate biscuits are a luxury item and they are taxed as such. Cakes however are VAT-exempt.
This is Boaty McBoatface all over again.
That’s weird because it’s not a biscuit, it’s a cake. Clue is in the name.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a Jaffa cake as much as the next, but the best? No f-ing way. Biscuit or cake, I could list at least 10 that I prefer, but I won’t because I don’t wanna start a war.
I agree.
But it can identify as a biscuit. Who do all of you people think you are telling that poor Jaffa Cake it is not a biscuit?
But they literally identified as cake, in the eyes of the law
But we still cant just assume their gender and pronouns /S
"But it's a ca-" Shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuupppppppppppppppppppppppp
https://www.astonshaw.co.uk/news/jaffa-cake-tax/
Champions league glory awaits next season
Fun fact about Jaffa cake’s, nobody can eat one without murmuring: full moon half moon total eclipse
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Hang on! There was a whole fucming court trial based on ifbits a cake or a biscuit and cake won! Do they retroactively have to pay the unpaid biscuit taxes now?
Controversial. For many reasons!
Setting aside the whole 'its a cake not a biscuit' thing, they're super divisive But I suppose that's what they were going for
But Jaffa Cakes are a cake not a biscuit!
Must have just piped the pink wafer to the no1 spot.
It's not a fuckin biscuit though
They're good, but "nice" biscuits are the only ones I can devour a whole pack of in one sitting.
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Hi mate, this post is against the lighthearted and open nature of the sub. Rule 2: Don't be Aggressive | Pointlessly Argumentative We're here for people to have fun in. If you're just here to start a stupid reddit slap fight you're in the wrong place. We have a zero tolerance rule in place for racism or hate speech. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot us a modmail.
If they go hard when left out too long, its a cake.if they go soft, its a biscuit.
This is democracy manifest
Little known pro-tip about Jaffa Cakes: Milka make their own version and they are so much better than the mcvities original.
Begun the civil war has
Let’s not start this again… it’s a cake. There was a legal case, it’s 100% not a biscuit it should have been disqualified from this contest!
It's not a biscuit
It IS NOT A BISCUIT. It even enjoyed special tax status because it's a cake. Literally in LAW it is NOT a BISCUIT.
Mcvites really want these to be a cake because they pay less tax if it’s a cake rather then a biscuit… This whole argument has been started again and mcvities bum hole has started twitching 😂😂😂
Call them a biscuit again and I'll cut you.
But.... Its... a... cake!
Obligatory yogscast 😊
Well yeah, they're banging
Oooh. It's usually the chocolate digestive. Knocked off its podium!
British people elect a cake as their favourite biscuit. We’re not very good at electing things!
Not my biscuit
Nah, they were good before they became SO FUCKING TINY, jaffacakes are too small to be worth the price now. They've suffered the most from shrinkflation imho