Tempest With a Teapot

For all the talk about London overtaking New York City as "the capital of the world" (whatever that means), here's a reminder that the foggy city still remain in certain ways, quaint.

Take, for instance, a tiff over tea cakes.

The retailer Marks & Spencer is bickering with the British government about repayment after a food item was wrongly taxed as biscuits, rather than cakes, for more than 20 years.

In Britain, it seems, the semantics of snacks are of some import - sales tax on biscuits ("crackers," to us Yanks) and cakes differs, with biscuits carrying a steeper rate.

Which is why M&S took exception to tax authorities stubbornly insisting on counting their little chocolate-covered marshmallows as biscuits, and charging the higher tax rate.

It's been over a decade since the British government conceded on the biscuit issue, and M&S has taken the matter of a full 3.5 million pound refund of the excess taxes all the way to the European Union Court of Justice.

Tax authorities argue that it would be unjust to enrich the coffers of Marks & Spencer now, since the tax was passed on to customers at the time it was levied.

Now the European Court of Justice's advocate general has even gotten involved, weighing in on the side of M&S. Since E.U. Court verdicts usually follow these opinions, it looks like M&S's tireless pursuit may pay off.

Liz Gunnison