Children’s clothes and shoes are zero rated under Group 16 of Schedule 8 to the VAT Act 1994 if they are designed for young children and not suitable for older persons. HMRC applies this through size tables based on children up to the eve of their 14th birthday and a requirement that the goods are clearly held out for sale for children. School uniform has no relief of its own, but garments unique to a school for under 14s can be zero rated whatever their size.

What does the law say?

Item 1 of Group 16 zero rates articles designed as clothing or footwear for young children and not suitable for older persons. Note (1) says clothing includes hats and other headgear. Note (2) excludes articles made wholly or partly of fur skin, except headgear, gloves, buttons, belts and buckles, and garments merely trimmed with fur, unless the trim covers more than one fifth of the outside material or, for a new garment, costs the manufacturer more than all the other components. Note (3) treats rabbit skin and woolled sheep or lamb skin as not being fur skin. Items 2 and 3 separately zero rate certain protective boots and helmets, covered below.

HMRC’s VAT Notice 714, paragraph 1.3, turns this into four conditions. The item must be an article of clothing or footwear; it must not be made of fur; it must be designed for young children; and it must be suitable only for young children. All four must be met.

What counts as clothing or footwear?

Clothing includes obvious garments plus hats, caps, braces, belts, scarves and items such as cyclists’ tabards and sailors’ life jackets that have the form and function of clothing. It excludes accessories and haberdashery sold separately: buttons, zips, badges, iron on patches, hand muffs, ear muffs, reflective armbands and buoyancy aids. Hair bands, scrunchies and sun visors are accessories, and novelty or party hats made of paper or plastic are toys, so all are standard rated.

For babies, HMRC accepts bibs, nappies held out for babies and young children, babies’ shawls, padded sleeping garments shaped at the neck and arms, and pushchair rain covers that can be worn as a cape. Sleeping bags without neck or arm holes and shawls designed to wrap mother and baby together are standard rated. Footwear includes boots, shoes, slippers, ballet shoes, football boots and skating boots, but not separate laces, insoles or blades (Notice 714, section 2).

How does the size test work?

HMRC accepts that a garment is designed for young children if it is at or within the measurements tabled in Notice 714, paragraph 4.2, which are based on children up to the eve of their 14th birthday. Garments are measured flat with fastenings done up; chest is measured 2.5cm below the armhole and doubled. Some of the limits are:

Garment Boys Girls
Shirts and knitwear (chest) 104cm 105cm
Jackets and waistcoats (chest) 109cm 110cm
Top coats and outerwear (chest) 114cm 115cm
Trousers and shorts (waist) 72cm 71cm
Dresses (chest) Not applicable 98cm

Footwear qualifies for boys up to and including size 6½. For girls it qualifies up to size 3, and from size 3½ to 5½ only if the heel height does not exceed the sole depth by more than 4cm. True unisex footwear stops at 5½. If a child’s feet differ in size, the pair qualifies if the smaller shoe does (paragraph 4.3).

Larger garments can still qualify if they are designed to fit a child’s body no larger than HMRC’s body measurement table, for example a height of 163cm for boys and 161cm for girls, and are restricted to under 14s by some other design feature. HMRC requires full specifications and its written agreement before such items are zero rated. A one size garment that fits both children and adults cannot be zero rated (paragraphs 4.2.1 to 4.2.3).

What does ‘not suitable for older persons’ mean in practice?

The final condition is met by holding the goods out for sale for young children, which Notice 714, paragraph 5.2, defines as the way they are labelled, packaged, displayed, invoiced or advertised, including catalogue and webpage headings. Goods that would pass on design fail if they are labelled to fit sizes above the body measurement table.

  • Retailers must make it clear from labels, signs and packaging that the goods are for young children, and sell them from a children’s shop or department, or from separately marked boys’, girls’ or children’s rails.
  • Online and mail order sellers should use a separate children’s section, and identical goods must not appear in both adult and children’s sections.
  • Wholesalers must identify the items as children’s on invoices and price lists.

Notice 714 warns that goods are not automatically zero rated on resale because they were zero rated when bought. Because holding out can change the rate, retailers using VAT retail schemes must allow for goods bought at one rate and sold at another.

How is school uniform treated?

There is no specific relief for school uniform; ordinary uniform items follow the size tables. However, garments supplied under a specific agreement with a school that is exclusively for pupils under 14 can be zero rated regardless of size if they are unique to that school by design, such as a prominent badge or piping in school colours, and are held out for sale as for that school only. The same applies to uniforms of organisations exclusively for under 14s, such as Beavers and Brownies, but not to uniform also worn by older groups, such as Scouts (Notice 714, paragraph 6.1).

Services follow the goods only where a new child’s garment results. Making up children’s clothes from someone else’s cloth can be zero rated, but altering a blazer’s sleeves or embroidering a school badge on it is standard rated because the blazer keeps its essential nature. Hiring out zero rated items, such as page boy outfits and fancy dress, is zero rated (section 9).

What about protective clothing and helmets?

Group 16 items 2 and 3 zero rate protective boots and helmets for industrial use and helmets for motorcycle or pedal cycle riders, regardless of the wearer’s age. VAT Notice 701/23 sets the conditions for industrial items: they must be boots or helmets (protective shoes do not qualify), made to standards satisfying regulation 8(2) of the Personal Protective Equipment Regulations 2002 and bearing the required conformity mark, and be for industrial use. They cannot be zero rated when supplied to an employer for use by its employees, although a sale by an employer to an employee can be. Motorcycle and pedal cycle helmets need the same conformity standard and mark.

Within the children’s relief, Notice 714 accepts protective helmets such as skateboarding or ice hockey helmets up to 59cm if designed and marketed exclusively for children, riding hats up to size 6¾, and lifejackets up to a 52kg body weight. Children’s car seats are not clothing; they are reduced rated at 5% (see VAT rates explained).

What does this look like on the shop floor?

Illustration only. A school outfitter sells grey trousers from its children’s rail. A pair with a 70cm waist at £18 is within the boys’ 72cm limit and is zero rated. A pair with a 76cm waist at the same price is standard rated, so £3 of the £18 is VAT, unless it is a garment designed exclusively for a particular school for under 14s under an agreement with that school. A blazer with the school’s badge and piping, sold under that agreement, is zero rated in every size.

What mistakes come up most often?

  • Zero rating by age label alone without checking garment measurements against HMRC’s tables.
  • Listing the same product in both adult and children’s sections of a website.
  • Zero rating generic plain uniform in adult sizes because it is sold as school wear.
  • Selling safety boots to employers at the zero rate.
  • Zero rating accessories such as hair bands, or alteration services.

For the difference between zero rated and exempt sales, and why it affects VAT recovery, see zero rated vs exempt supplies. Errors found later can be put right under correcting VAT errors.

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Sources

Reviewed by Christine Anderson, Broker, Solar Protect. Last reviewed 8 October 2026. Part of Accountapedia, the Solar Protect guide to UK tax and accounting. This page is general information, not personalised advice.