Apparently, the courts have decided that the Great British Public wrongly paid VAT over 20 years on a cake bought at Marks and Sparks.

It amounts to around 3.5m GBP

If the money is to be paid back, how should it be done?

It shouldn't go to M&S cos the tax was paid by the customers anyway.

Where do you think ti should go?

Full story on the BBC

This makes me laugh cos I used to work in customs and incorrect identificatioof products can make a huge difference on VAT or import tariffs. I had an airlien caterer who nearly went out of business thanks to me cos he was wrongly declaring his cream crackers! :lol: It took abotu 2 years to get them analysed and recalculate the duty, it was hsi fault though not mine. It was one fo th ebiggest pain in the ass jobs I ever had to do, and the calculations were realyl hard.

Anyway yes, I reckon that they wll have to pay it back to M&S. Although as you say that money was the publics and M&S can't give it back to every customer that bought that cake. As M&S haven't lost anything maybe they could use the money for something useful or charitable. Or give it back to M&S on the grounds that they somehow do something for the customer? :shrug: Not sure really, it's tough cos the folks who should have it can't be traced.