VFOOD6160 - Excepted items: Confectionery: The bounds of confectionery, sweets, chocolates, chocolate biscuits, cakes and biscuits: Sweets and chocolates

All sweets and chocolate confectionery are standard-rated. These two categories are fairly straightforward, comprising those products which most obviously fall within the definition of confectionery. Examples are:

  • chocolates
  • bars of chocolate
  • diabetic chocolate and sweets
  • chocolates containing nuts, fruit, toffee, caramel, fondant, pieces of biscuit or any other ingredient
  • nuts or fruit with coating, for example, of chocolate, carob, yoghurt or sugar
  • liqueur chocolates and similar sweets
  • boiled sweets
  • lollipops
  • fruit pastilles, fruit gums, similar jelly sweets and jelly confectionery
  • chewing gum and bubble gum
  • liquorice allsorts and other liquorice sweets
  • turkish delight
  • sweets made of marzipan or marzipan substitute
  • sherbert
  • marshmallow, fondants and similar confectionery.

There are some chocolate products which are not confectionery but are foods and are therefore zero-rated. See VFOOD6180 under ‘Chocolate confectionery’.