Why Don't They Just Tax This Disgusting Product?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39599329

[hc4361]

It is taxed

[jno]

there's an import duty but apparently no VAT. It's not particularly disgusting - people who spit it onto the street may be, but they're likely to be also the people who throw cigarette butts, plastic bags and beer cans onto the street. Catch them and fine them.

[douglas9401]

The product is no more disgusting than others, it's the troglodytes who discard it that are the problem.
Modern man has evolved to the point where they can use bins.

[hc4361]

Why is there an import duty on it? Wrigleys make it in Plymouth

[hc4361]

Chewing gum has VAT at standard rate, except for smoking cessation therapy gum which is zero rated

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-70114-food/vat-notice-70114-food

[murraymints]

contraband in Singapore !!

[ToraToraTora]

well it isn't taxed enough then.

[hc4361]

VAT = Value Added TAX

[hc4361]

I don't want the factory in Plymouth to close down - they've been making gum in the UK for over 100 years :)

[hc4361]

Lichen can look very much like chewing gum

http://www.lichens.lastdragon.org/Aspicilia_contorta_pavement_PA150201.jpg

[THECORBYLOON]

"The LGA claims that gum costs 3p per piece to buy, but that it costs councils £1.50 to clean up each square metre of pavement." Since when has one piece of chuddie covered a square metre?

[hc4361]

Get everyone's DNA on file - that'll sort it. :D

[wolf63]

I am not too keen on chewing gum but bubble gum is ace. Nobody around here seems to sell bubble gum. I always put my used gum in a bit of paper or wrapper and stick it in the bin.

[MallyJ]

I really don't understand why people feel the need to use a product like gum when all they succeed in doing is looking like cattle chewing the cud....there is nothing remotely attractive about this habit at all. The inability to dispose of it in appropriate bins suggests a lack of consideration for others at the very least.

[Jackdaw33]

Chewing the cud. I couldn't have put it better myself. A disgusting, filthy habit, say I, a sixty a day smoker.

[emmie]

seeing as how chewing gum serves no purpose why not dispose of it altogether.

[Mamyalynne]

http://www.chewinggumfacts.com/chewing-gum-benefits/health-benefits-of-gum-chewing/


Or is there a purpose?

[hc4361]

emmie, you can't close a factory and put 500 British workers out of work just because the product serves no purpose. Where would it end?

[emmie]

the mess our London streets are in is because dopey bstars continue to drop their chewing gum on the pavements, and its a huge cost as shown to clear it up.
If some think it has some magic property, i don't get it.