Calls to end tall tax on kids’ kit
MINISTERS are refusing to update a half-centuryold “tall tax” on kids’ clothes – even school uniforms.
Children’s clothing and footwear is exempt from VAT, but only on sizes judged suitable for under-14s.
Items like skirts must fit a 28in waist or less, while a 30in inside leg is the limit for trousers.
But children are an inch taller than in 1972 and one in five is obese, forcing many parents to pay the 20% tax, even on compulsory uniforms.
Now Tory MP Sir Christopher Chope is demanding uniforms be made exempt so the Government can show it “is genuinely concerned about the cost of kitting out children for school”.
He says it should also update the maximum measurements for all kids’ clothes to “accord with reality”. But Financial Secretary Jesse Norman said last week there are no plans for a review.