17/12/2025
Morrisons gets a £17m VAT bill for its rotisserie chickens
A UK court has found a case for the British tax authorities HM Revenue & Customs against UK Supermarket Morrisons’ on the VAT treatment of the sale of its whole rotisserie chicken.
The court’s decision comes down to one central conclusion: Morrisons’ “cool down” rotisserie chickens are taxable as hot food and subject to the standard rate of 20% VAT under UK VAT law.
This tested the principle concerning products which are “incidentally hot”; meaning that they are cooked and may retain some heat following cooking, at the time of sale and potentially has a wider impact upon the sale of similar foods with other supermarkets.
What the High Court Found
On the basis of the evidence presented in the case the following judgement was made:
1. The chickens were still “hot food” when sold
Although Morrisons argued the birds were meant to be eaten cold or reheated later, evidence showed they were kept in foil lined, heat retaining bags and which remained well above ambient temperature for up to two hours after cooking.
On this basis, the judge ruled this meant they were not merely “incidentally hot”, but intentionally kept warm.
2. Heat retaining packaging mattered
The court said Morrisons failed to disclose that the bags retained heat and moisture, thus preventing the chickens from cooling naturally. This undermined their claim that the products were sold as cold food.
3. Removal from sale after two hours was significant
Unsold Chickens were taken off sale after two hours because they were still too warm ie they were continuing to cook. A naturally cooling chicken would have been much cooler by that point. This reinforced that the product was stored in a heat retaining environment, not cooling like a cold food item would otherwise do.
4. VAT should therefore apply at the standard 20% rate
Because the chickens were kept hot and sold hot, they fell squarely within the rules introduced after the 2012 “pasty tax” reforms, which apply VAT to hot takeaway food.
5. HMRC’s earlier guidance wasn’t clear enough—but it didn’t change the outcome
Although the judge accepted that HMRC had not given Morrisons taxation team clear rulings in 2012–14, this did not create a legitimate expectation that the chickens were zero rated. The physical facts of how the chickens were sold were decisive.
Impact
Morrisons now faces a £17 million VAT bill, and the ruling may influence how other supermarkets and food operators handle similar products.
