VFOOD3260 - Items benefiting from the relief: products used for animal feed and other purposes: chemical and mineral additives

Complete and compound foods and nutritional supplements invariably contain chemical or mineral additives included to supplement the basic ingredients. These additives will be produced either as single minerals or as pre-mixes. They are usually supplied to feed manufacturers, although larger farmers may buy them to mix their own feed.

While most pre-mixes are tailored specifically to animal nutritional requirements and, in that particular combination, would have no non-feed uses, single chemicals have obviously many uses other than for feed: even feed grade chemicals would have alternative uses in pharmaceutical or veterinary products. Consequently, single chemicals are always standard-rated for VAT purposes. Pre-mixes which are specialised to an animal’s nutritional requirements are zero-rated, but you must be satisfied that the mix is for nutritional rather than medicinal purposes.