The Supreme Court today ruled that sandwiches made by the subway contain a lot of sugar.

The verdict came today from an appeal by the subway franchise, Bookfinders Ltd., which claimed that many of the products it sells are “staple foods” so they do not have to pay VAT and attract a 0% VAT rate.

However, a five-judge court ruled that sandwiches should be subject to VAT because of the amount of sugar.

The law states that bread is considered an “important product” and should not exceed 2% of the weight of the flour contained in the flour so as not to attract VAT. Subway bread has a 10% ratio.

The appeal comes from a claim filed by Bookfinders Ltd. in December 2006 with the Revenue Commissioners. In the claim, the subway franchise demanded a refund of 9.2% VAT payments from January / February 2004 to November / December 2005. , Instead it was claimed to be subject to 0% VAT.

“The court ruled that the bread used by the appellant in their sandwiches should not be considered as bread according to para. (xii) In the second schedule, the amount of sugar in the bread is higher than the percentage allowed in the schedule.

“Bread is exempted from the 0% rate on the schedule, where any of the specified ingredients is more than the allowable percentage.”

The book finders argued that if all the ingredients were included, the 0% rate (not just the sugar) would be higher than the allowable percentage to fall to 13.5%. The judges also rejected this argument, acknowledging that it was clear that bread would lose 0% if any of the ingredients exceeded the allowable percentage.

The franchise argued that certain VAT rates apply to cooked and cold products and that they are heated later. He argued that only heated cold tea and coffee were priced at 13.5% and hot brewed tea and coffee were priced at 0%. The court also rejected this argument.