VAT on food · 2026

VAT on food in Ireland: what is 0%, 13.5%, 9% and 23%

Your weekly shop is mostly VAT-free. The exceptions are where the money and the arguments are: biscuits, cakes, crisps, drinks and anything served hot. Every rate below comes from Revenue's VAT rates database. The calculator is preset to 13.5% for the bakery counter; switch to 23% for the sweets.

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Irish VAT breakdown · 2026

Net: €88.11
VAT @ 13.5%: €11.89
Gross: €100.00

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The short version

Rate	Food and drink at this rate (Revenue database)
0%	Bread (meeting the legal definition), milk, meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruit, cereals, flour, butter, cheese, tea and coffee in non-drinkable form, baby food, cold takeaway food such as sandwiches
13.5%	Cakes, flour or egg-based bakery products, biscuits not covered in chocolate, breads outside the definition (brioche, croissants, crispbread, garlic bread)
9%	Restaurant and catering meals, bar food, meals in hotels, hot takeaway food, hot tea and coffee (all since 1 July 2026)
23%	Chocolate-covered biscuits, confectionery and sweets, ice cream, crisps and potato snacks, soft drinks and minerals, bottled water, alcohol, glacé and crystallised fruit

Why most food is zero-rated

Ireland zero-rates “certain food and drink” under Schedule 2 of the VAT Consolidation Act 2010. Zero-rated is different from exempt. The shop charges 0% but can still reclaim the VAT on its rent, refrigeration and delivery van. That is why a supermarket is happy to sell you zero-rated milk: the VAT on its costs comes back. An exempt business, such as a GP surgery, cannot reclaim anything. Details on the VAT rates page.

The zero rate is for food as an ingredient or staple. Once food is processed into a treat, served hot, or served to you at a table, it moves to a positive rate. That is the logic behind every odd case below.

Bread: the definition matters

Revenue’s database entry for bread says the zero rate applies only where the product meets the definition in paragraph 8(1) of Schedule 2, which sets ingredient and weight limits. Standard loaves, rolls and soda bread pass. Brioche, croissants, crispbread and maltana are listed as reduced rate, and Revenue’s food and drink page adds garlic bread, onion bread and fennel bread to the list of products that generally do not qualify. Honey counts as a sugar substitute for the test. The point of the definition is to stop cake being sold as bread, and a Supreme Court case on a well-known sandwich chain’s bread turned on exactly this paragraph.

Biscuits, cakes and the chocolate line

Cakes are 13.5%. Biscuits without chocolate are 13.5%. Biscuits “wholly or partly covered or decorated with chocolate or similar product” are 23%, in Revenue’s words. Confectionery and sweets are 23%, with the database note reminding you that cakes and non-chocolate biscuits get the reduced rate instead. Ice cream is 23%. A chocolate-chip biscuit is listed at 13.5%, because the chocolate is inside rather than coating it. That is how fine the line is; look the product up rather than guess.

Work it through: a €3.50 packet of chocolate biscuits contains €0.65 of VAT at 23%. The same price in plain digestives contains €0.42 at 13.5%. The reverse VAT calculator does the division.

Crisps and snacks

Potato crisps, sticks and puffs are 23%. Revenue’s entry explains why: they are specifically excluded from the zero rate by Part D of Table 1 in paragraph 8(1) of Schedule 2. Vegetable crisps, cooked popcorn and salted or roasted nuts are 23% for the same reason. Natural nuts are 0%. Roast them and salt them and the rate jumps.

Drinks

Milk is 0%. Tea and coffee sold as leaves, bags or grounds to make at home are 0%. Hot tea or coffee bought from a cafe is 9%, because it is a hot drink supplied for consumption, and Revenue lists both at the second reduced rate. Minerals, soft drinks and bottled water are 23%, and Revenue excludes them from the 9% catering rate, so a restaurant charges 23% on the bottle of sparkling water even while the food is at 9%. Alcohol is 23% everywhere.

Eating in, taking away, ordering hot

This is where one lunch gets three rates. Since 1 July 2026 catering and restaurant supplies, hot takeaway food, and hot tea and coffee are at 9%. A cold sandwich to take away is 0%. A can of Coke is 23%. So a chicken roll, a coffee and a can bought from a deli counter and eaten at your desk is 0% + 9% + 23%. Eat the same roll at a table in the cafe and it becomes 9% too. The VAT on restaurants page has the history of the hospitality rate.

For food businesses

A shop or cafe selling at more than one rate has to record sales by rate and account for each on its VAT3 return. Revenue’s retailers’ special schemes exist for exactly this, and a modern till handles it if the product file is set up correctly. Get the product file wrong and every packet of chocolate biscuits sold at 13.5% is an underpayment. The VAT3 guide covers the return itself, and the VAT calculator handles any rate.

Food and VAT questions

Most basic food and drink is zero-rated: bread, milk, meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruit, tea and coffee bought to make at home. VAT applies to food that Revenue treats as less basic: cakes and non-chocolate biscuits at 13.5%, chocolate biscuits, sweets, crisps, ice cream, soft drinks and alcohol at 23%, and any food served hot or eaten in at 9%.

Revenue’s database puts biscuits wholly or partly covered or decorated with chocolate at the standard rate, and non-chocolate biscuits and cakes at the reduced rate under paragraph 3(5) of Schedule 3 of the VAT Act. The chocolate coating is the trigger. Chocolate chip biscuits, where the chocolate is inside, are listed at 13.5%.

Only bread that meets the legal definition, which sets limits on ingredients such as fat, sugar and fruit. Ordinary sliced pans, soda bread and rolls qualify. Revenue says brioche, croissants, crispbread, maltana and garlic bread generally do not meet the definition and are at 13.5%.

A cold sandwich bought to take away is 0%, because it is zero-rated food. The same sandwich eaten in the cafe is 9% catering, and a hot sandwich to go is 9% as hot takeaway food. A can of soft drink with it is 23% every time.

Sources and method

Every rate on this site was checked against the pages below on 3 September 2026, and an automated check compares our rates with the Revenue tables every week. We compute VAT the way Revenue does: adding VAT multiplies the net by (1 + rate), removing VAT divides the gross by (1 + rate), and every figure is rounded half-up to the cent.

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