For me, the reason it sucks is that it plays into the hands of huge homogeneous businesses, while making life very difficult for companies supplying nice products in low volume, DTC.
Instead of me being able to order a kilo of nice stinky cheese from a french shop (or small UK shop), I either have to hope one of the supermarkets starts carrying it, or hop on the ferry and go to Super U myself.
(Honestly, I can see myself doing more day-trips to france at this rate! Good excuse to fill the boot of the car with produce, assuming exemptions are in place for personal use)
I mean, there there are going to be other costs that dominate in that case anyway (if someone’s going purely for the purpose of purchasing cheese), but if you’re personally carrying the thing, is cheese duty-free?
A duty-free shop (or store) is a retail outlet whose goods are exempt from the payment of certain local or national taxes and duties, on the requirement that the goods sold will be sold to travelers who will take them out of the country, who will then pay duties and taxes in their destination country (depending on its personal exemption limits and tariff regime).
Duty-free are abolished for intra-EU (inside the EU tax union) travelers but are retained for travelers whose final destination is outside the EU. They also sell to intra-EU travelers but with appropriate taxes.
In 2021, with Brexit duty free are reintroduced in three British nations: England, Wales and Scotland. This allows reduced taxes on wine, Champagne or Prosecco, beer and spirits as well as on cigarettes, cigarillos, cigars, or tobacco.[17]
Hmm. Doesn’t really answer the question, as that’s not specific to the UK and the second bit is about people buying in the UK to take goods to the EU.
You can bring some goods from abroad without having to pay UK tax or duty, if they’re either:
for your own use
you want to give them as a gift
Allowance for other goods
You can bring in other goods worth up to £390 (or up to £270 if you arrive by private plane or boat).
Declaring goods made or produced in the EU
You do not need to pay any tax or duties on personal goods you bring into Great Britain as long as they are within your personal allowances.
looks up the price of a Dover-Calais round-trip ferry ticket
About £190. I assume that that includes any cost of clearing customs, that there isn’t any additional fee.
So my guess is that traveling to the EU in person – while an option – to obtain up to £390 in goods is probably, even excluding the time and other costs, going to be more expensive than ordering it, even with the processing fee being discussed in the article. But if someone’s going to be going to the EU anyway for some other reason and just picks up the cheese on the way back, it could pay off relative to having it shipped in.
In honesty, it’s also an excuse for a jolly.
“Darling, we’re out of your favourite cheese, I guess it’s time for a long weekend on the continent.”
French wine has always been a lot cheaper for comparable quality, anyone coming back from holiday with less than 4 boxes raises eyebrows!
For me, the reason it sucks is that it plays into the hands of huge homogeneous businesses, while making life very difficult for companies supplying nice products in low volume, DTC.
Instead of me being able to order a kilo of nice stinky cheese from a french shop (or small UK shop), I either have to hope one of the supermarkets starts carrying it, or hop on the ferry and go to Super U myself.
(Honestly, I can see myself doing more day-trips to france at this rate! Good excuse to fill the boot of the car with produce, assuming exemptions are in place for personal use)
I mean, there there are going to be other costs that dominate in that case anyway (if someone’s going purely for the purpose of purchasing cheese), but if you’re personally carrying the thing, is cheese duty-free?
googles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duty-free_shop
Hmm. Doesn’t really answer the question, as that’s not specific to the UK and the second bit is about people buying in the UK to take goods to the EU.
looks further
https://www.gov.uk/bringing-goods-into-uk-personal-use/print
looks up the price of a Dover-Calais round-trip ferry ticket
About £190. I assume that that includes any cost of clearing customs, that there isn’t any additional fee.
So my guess is that traveling to the EU in person – while an option – to obtain up to £390 in goods is probably, even excluding the time and other costs, going to be more expensive than ordering it, even with the processing fee being discussed in the article. But if someone’s going to be going to the EU anyway for some other reason and just picks up the cheese on the way back, it could pay off relative to having it shipped in.
In honesty, it’s also an excuse for a jolly.
“Darling, we’re out of your favourite cheese, I guess it’s time for a long weekend on the continent.”
French wine has always been a lot cheaper for comparable quality, anyone coming back from holiday with less than 4 boxes raises eyebrows!