Duty Free Booze .com : Duty Free /Tax Free Beer , Wine and spirits ordered over the Internet.

The European Commission today announced plans to make it easier than ever for consumers to bring as much cheap alcohol into Britain as they wish.

In a move bound to irritate the Treasury, officials have proposed abolishing existing advisory limits on the amount of beer, wine and spirits considered to be for personal use when brought in from supermarkets across the Channel.

Under current rules, booze-cruise shoppers need to pick up cheap drink themselves and bring it into the UK, possibly facing customs questions and confiscation of their cargoes and vehicles if the amounts are deemed to be unjustified as being for personal use.

According to EU guidelines, anything up to 800 cigarettes, 400 cigarillos, 90 litres of wine (including a maximum of 60 litres of sparkling wine) and 110 litres of beer is deemed for personal use, although national authorities should consider “individual circumstances” when carrying out checks.

For example, amounts above guideline levels can be considered as for personal use if the purchaser convinces officials it is for a wedding or big party.

On the other hand if someone bringing in less than guideline levels has been identified by surveillance operations as involved in illicit sales evading excise duties, penalties can be imposed.

But strict policing of the existing rules at UK Channel ports has caused a bitter row between UK customs officials and Brussels.

Chancellor Gordon Brown, not keen on losing domestic tax revenue, was unimpressed when single market Commissioner Frits Bolestein declared: “Cross-border shopping is a fundamental right under EU law and should not be regarded as a form of tax evasion – even if it does give rise to revenue losses for the UK exchequer.”

Now, in a bid to stop over-zealous customs officials, the Commission is suggesting doing away with any guidelines on personal imports altogether for alcohol, although the “indicative limits” remain for tobacco on health grounds.

The Treasury has been losing huge amounts of tax revenue because people are taking advantage of the EU single market to buy cheap booze and cigarettes at lower tax rates across the Channel.

In France, the obvious popular destination for ’booze-cruises’, excise duties are minimal, while in half a dozen countries there are no alcohol duties at all.

To stop shoppers unfairly exploiting the single market arrangements, UK customs officers have been impounding cars and confiscating bulk booze imports where they believe the amounts far exceed the requirements of private consumption and are being sold on for a profit, at the Treasury’s expense.

They say they are right to intercept bulk imports if they suspect the rules are being exploited by people bringing in vast quantities of alcohol and tobacco which cannot possibly be only for their own use.

But the Commission has repeatedly questioned the tactic– even threatening the government with EU court action for allegedly breaching rules on the free movement of goods and cross-border shopping.

The right to buy tobacco and alcohol abroad for “non-commercial” use was agreed by EU governments in 1992 as part of the unprecedented opening up of the single European market.

The simple idea was that tax was payable in the country of purchase. But with widely-differing tax rates in neighbouring EU countries, the principle has always been challenged by governments losing out.

Today’s Commission statement said the new proposal “would extend the application of the principle under which private individuals can freely acquire products subject to excise duty intended for personal consumption in a member state and bring them back to another state, without those products being subject to taxation in the state of destination”.

At the moment, said the statement, this principle only applies to cases “where the private individual himself transports the products subject to excise duty”.

And in future, if EU governments back the move, cheap booze will be able to be ordered over the Internet, for door-to-door delivery – although the excise duty will be payable in the country of delivery, not the country of purchase.

Commission officials admitted today that getting the necessary unanimous approval from EU finance ministers, who will consider the proposal later this month, may be difficult.

Duty Free Booze .com

Duty Free /Tax Free
Beer , Wine and spirits
ordered over the Internet

You get them delivered straight to your door

THE BOATLESS BOOZE CRUISE