Please
tell me when the law changes
email:updateme@dutyfreebooze.com
Christmas bonus of duty-free drink and cigs
By Lesley-Anne Henry
13 November 2006
It looks like being a very merry Christmas for Ulster's smokers and drinkers.
Shoppers are set to make massive savings on alcohol and tobacco without having to leave their house.
They will be able to use mail order firms to pick and choose the best bargains from across Europe and have them delivered home duty-free.
This could mean huge savings for Northern Irish customers, but would deal a serious blow to the Exchequer which rakes in £15 billion every year in excise duty.
The European Court of Justice is due to rule that goods can be bought in other EU states and delivered to your door while you only pay the duty levied in the country of origin - often a fraction of what is charged here.
The ruling, expected on November 23, cannot be appealed and will take immediate effect.
This means that 200 Marlborough Lights cigarettes could be bought in Latvia for €10.70 instead of £50.44 here.
A number of other European countries have no excise duty on wine which means a bottle of Jacob's Creek Chardonnay, costing £6.79 in Northern Ireland, could be purchased for less than £3 - €4.50 from France.
Excise duty on spirits and beer is also higher here than in most other EU countries, with shoppers likely to save as much as 60% on whisky and vodka.
At present, UK and Irish citizens can bring alcohol and cigarettes with them into the country if they can show it is for personal use. But the Revenue limits travellers to 800 cigarettes, 10 litres of spirits, 90 litres of wine and 110 litres of beer.
The test case is being taken by a Dutch group which is attempting to have wine bought in France shipped home without physically accompanying it.
The Dutch government levied alcohol duty on the wine but, after a legal challenge, the European court's advocate-general, Francis Jacob, found it had been wrong to do so
Archive
More and cheaper booze set to flow across EU
Fri 2 April, 2004 14:05
By Sebastian Alison
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - As much booze as you want at the lowest
possible price.
That's the promise dangled before European Union citizens
on Friday, as the bloc's executive proposed scrapping all
limits on how much alcohol they can transport across borders,
while allowing them to pay the lowest tax rate they can
find.
EU citizens can already buy as much wine or beer as they
like in another member state and bring it home with them
-- provided it is for personal use.
But the executive Commission has set "indicative limits"
-- 10 litres (2.200 Imp gallons) of spirits, 90 litres of
wine and 110 litres of beer -- to decide what counts as
personal use, and some countries are observing these guidelines
too zealously.
"So in order to get rid of this problem we are proposing
to delete these indicative levels," Commission spokesman
Jonathan Todd told a briefing.
It gets even better for thirsty consumers facing high taxes
at home.
The Commission also wants to allow EU citizens to pay excise
duty at the rate in the country where they buy their alcohol,
rather than in the country they take it to.
"So for example you're on holiday, you visit a Chateau
in France, you take a liking to the wine and you order a
consignment to be delivered to your home member state,"
Todd went on.
"Currently that wine is subject to excise duty in the country
where you live."
Not any more -- under the proposal, consumers will be able
to buy wine in, for example, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg,
Italy, Greece and Portugal, all of which have no excise
duty on wine at all, and take it home with nothing more
to pay.
The only proviso is that buyers must arrange transport
themselves -- they can order vast quantities of booze over
the internet from a low-tax country and have it delivered
to their home, but not if the retailer organises delivery.
The move is likely to be particularly welcome in Britain,
whose drinkers pay the highest excise duties on alcohol
in the EU, and in Scandinavian countries, where the rate
is also steep.
The proposal must be approved unanimously by ministers
from the 15 EU member states.
Please tell me
when the law changes
email:updateme@dutyfreebooze.com |
