Takeaway VAT calculator: which rate, and meal deals ​

Two questions come up on every takeaway menu: does this item carry VAT, and how much VAT is inside a meal deal? The calculator below answers both the way HMRC’s own guidance does. It is a quick check, not a ruling: where an item is borderline, it says so and sends you to the notice or your accountant.

How it decides ​

• Eaten on your premises: 20%, hot or cold (VAT Notice 709/1, section 3.1). Premises include an area you set aside for your customers to eat in, even if other businesses’ customers use it too.
• A cooked meal you deliver: HMRC gives delivery of cooked, ready-to-eat food or meals as an example of catering, which is 20% (section 2.1).
• Hot takeaway: 20% if it is hot when you hand it over and meets any one of the five tests (sections 4.2 and 4.3).
• Cold takeaway: 0%, unless it is one of the items that are always 20%: ice cream and frozen desserts, confectionery, alcoholic drinks, other drinks including fruit juices and bottled water, and packaged crisps, savoury snacks and salted or roasted nuts. Milk and milk drinks go back to 0% (VAT Act 1994, Schedule 8, Group 1).
• VAT inside a price: at 20%, the VAT in a price that already includes it is one sixth of the price (VAT Notice 700, section 7.3.1).
• Meal deals: when one price covers items at different rates, split it by what each item normally sells for on its own. The 20% part of the deal is the deal price times the 20% items’ normal prices, divided by all the items’ normal prices; the VAT is one sixth of that part. HMRC’s own example: £200 for two things that normally sell for £50 (0%) and £200 (20%) gives £160 at 20%, and £26.67 VAT (VAT Notice 700, section 31.2.1). The notice also allows a split based on cost (709/1, section 4.7). Pick one method and use it consistently.

What it does not decide ​

• Borderline products such as iced coffee, smoothies and cereal bars.
• Where your premises end: seating shared in a food court, tables outside, a stall inside someone else’s venue.
• Cold food you deliver, or food you supply under a contract or for an event.
• How to split eat-in and takeaway sales if your till cannot record them.
• Sales between 25 June and 1 September 2026, when a temporary reduced rate applied to some children’s meals eaten in.

For these, check the notice or ask your accountant. The full explanation, with examples, is in our guide to VAT on takeaway food.

Sources ​

• HMRC, Catering, takeaway food (VAT Notice 709/1), last updated 8 June 2026: sections 2.1, 3.1, 4.1–4.4 and 4.7.
• HMRC, Food products (VAT Notice 701/14), last updated 8 June 2026: section 3.7.2, cold milk drinks.
• HMRC, VAT guide (VAT Notice 700), last updated 25 June 2026: section 7.3.1, the VAT fraction, and section 31.2.1, splitting a price by selling prices.
• legislation.gov.uk, Value Added Tax Act 1994, Schedule 8: Group 1, the excepted items, the items overriding them, and Notes 3 to 3C.
• HMRC, Revenue and Customs Brief 5 (2026), 27 July 2026: the temporary reduced rate from 25 June to 1 September 2026.

This calculator is general information, not tax advice. For a specific product or way of selling, check the notice or ask HMRC or your accountant.