Can I see your boarding pass please?

roger_ramjet · 12 August 2015 at 11:06AM

Here's a thought. Could I not just buy in the airport, request a vat receipt, and then claim back the vat from hmrc?

Former_MSE_Paloma · 12 August 2015 at 11:07AM

The Treasury has called on shops to make sure they pass on tax savings to customers who buy goods at the airport...

Read the full story:

Airport retailers urged to pass on tax discounts to flyers

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dlusman · 12 August 2015 at 11:35AM

Deleted_User wrote: »

For years after WH Smith launched their honesty box for newspapers I used to get a copy of every single newspaper on offer - UK and foreign - and slip 10p in various coins into the box.
And even pick up the free bottle of water that came with the Telegraph.
Re-hydration and reading material for a long-haul flight for a pittance.
Happy days.

so you are happy to endorse shoplifting /theft ?

dlusman · 12 August 2015 at 11:38AM

roger_ramjet wrote: »

Here's a thought. Could I not just buy in the airport, request a vat receipt, and then claim back the vat from hmrc?

Might be wrong - but I believe this is for non-EU citizens buying duty paid goods anywhere in the EU and taking them out of the EU . eg if you where an American buying a camera in the UK and then taking it home

InsideInsurance · 12 August 2015 at 11:51AM

Moto2 wrote: »

I've never noticed any airport shop caring one iota what quantity of booze you buy.
It isn't their business

Depends what you mean by "care" and "quantity".

Certain larger bottles are priced differently depending on if you are travelling in the EU/internally or going outside the EU and so they do care to some degree because it impacts what price they are to charge you.

If you are going outside the EU I've certainly been reminded what my limits are but its up to you if you want to abide by them or breach them

InsideInsurance · 12 August 2015 at 11:55AM

MSE_Paloma wrote: »

The Treasury has called on shops to make sure they pass on tax savings to customers who buy goods at the airport

Wonder if this could backfire? At the moment most companies, in my experience, do sell to everyone at the "discounted" price. Technically this does mean that they are making more profit on some customers than others but for me as a consumer travelling in EU I am still paying less than I would in their high street shop and for certain high end brands that you dont otherwise see discounted this can be good.

Push too hard not to rip off those travelling outside the EU and you could quickly see those travelling within no longer receiving a discount thus making it "fairer"

One-Eye · 12 August 2015 at 1:10PM

It is rare for me to purchase anything on leaving the UK, but I usually spend money in the airport when returning to the UK. I have always found that airport shops in other EU countries use dual pricing with both EU and non-EU prices shown on the shelf edge. Your boarding pass is scanned at the till which then charges you the appropriate price. I always assumed the same process applied at UK airports.

One time at Schipol the tills didn't recognise my destination "SZD" (Sheffield - which had only recently opened) and the shop manager allowed me to purchase at the non-EU price. The shop sold me a lot of stuff that day!

SW17 · 12 August 2015 at 3:10PM

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Wonder if this could backfire? At the moment most companies, in my experience, do sell to everyone at the "discounted" price. Technically this does mean that they are making more profit on some customers than others but for me as a consumer travelling in EU I am still paying less than I would in their high street shop and for certain high end brands that you dont otherwise see discounted this can be good.

Push too hard not to rip off those travelling outside the EU and you could quickly see those travelling within no longer receiving a discount thus making it "fairer"

Interesting point. Unsurprisingly for the season, the media are taking one aspect of this and pulling hard. The retailers generally fall into one of 3 camps here (excluding duty free alcohol and tobacco):

1. Those who sell at the same price to everyone, at a price that is the same as (or sometimes higher than) their high street prices, e.g. Boots, WH Smith. These are the ones creaming the most extra profit from this, on all non-EU destination customers.

2. Those selling at a price lower than their high street price, with the same price to everyone. This will be a "blended" price, somewhere between the high street price and the VAT-free price They are making lower than normal profit on the EU customers, and higher than normal on the non-EU. Whether overall they are making extra profit compared to the high street is impossible to know from outside their business, but they clearly give an advantage to the customers travelling in the EU. An example of this would be Dixons (leaving aside the point that you might easily beat their "discounted" prices online for some products).

3. Those already discounting and giving the non-EU price without VAT to everyone, and absorb the loss on the EU destination customers. These tend to be the higher end stores, who have high enough margins to make this worthwhile and will judge that they sell enough to non-EU pax to justify it. Examples are Harrods and high end fashion brands.

If retailers are forced to split pricing, those shopping under category 2 above will lose out if they are travelling in the EU.

A couple of other things need to be remembered here as well - costs of having an airport location can be higher, so possible that more profit is needed by the retailer. Also, the percentage of non-EU destination passengers at many UK airports is relatively low, so this is not such a big issue everywhere.

thefawcett · 12 August 2015 at 3:11PM

It gets even worse. As I understand it, if a retailer buys 10 items for £5 each nett, he pays £60.00. £50, plus £10 VAT. If he sells them for £12 including VAT (£10 plus £2 VAT) each, of which two sell to EU customers, and eight sell to non EU, he collects no VAT from the non EU, and £4.00 VAT from the EU.

He has to pay the £4.00 he collected, but can claim back the £10 he paid, so can then claim the £6.00 balance BACK from the HMRC.

And this nonsense about it being too difficult to segregate one from the other at the tills is rubbish. They have to issue a VAT invoice if they want to claim VAT back. They cant issue one if they don't include VAT. The segregation is already done at the till.

In this example, selling the same items on the high street would cost him the £60 he paid to his supplier, plus the £10 balance of VAT he has to pay HMRC - so his costs are £70 against his £120 sales. ie £50 gross profit

Selling as above at the airport his costs are £60 to the supplier LESS the £6.00 he gets back from the HMRC so his costs are only £54 against his £120 sales. ie £66 gross profit, 32% more than he makes on the high street.

MLoosemore · 12 August 2015 at 5:55PM

The video makes it clear that there is no legal requirement to show the boarding pass for any goods with the exception of Alcohol and Tobacco. Is there any requirement to show it for other items bought from the Duty Free Outlet at airports for example Perfumes, Aftershaves etc?

Basically does the argument for not showing the boarding pass work in the Duty Free Outlet at Airports as long as the purchase is for something other than Alcohol or Cigarettes?

Can I see your boarding pass please?

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