i thought alot of food was vat free??
Food is VAT free, books are VAT free, children's clothing is VAT free; other stuff too; probably. Also, don't confuse VAT with duty, which is applied to alcohol and cigs; that's a different subject altogether.
However, items that could be thought of as luxuries incur vat, such as electrical goods, cars, and vibrating marital aids.
But there's nothing stopping a small adult purchasing children's clothing for their own personal use and conning the tax man out of his VAT money (personally I think when-ever someone small buys children's clothes they should sign a declaration stating that it is not for their own use).
Anyway, VAT is a complicated subject; I used to run the accounts for a large infantry battalion and VAT was mostly guess work for me, but since even my auditors didn't really understand it, I was never properly questioned about how I accounted for it.