Tax Allowances

[Zeebs]

Hello all,

Could someone please tell me how much $/£ tax allowance we get per person. Is this also per seat on plane or per passport (eg my 11 month no seat but obviously has passport).

Just working out how much I can buy and bring home given I will be there so close to Christmas maybe I can get all my shopping done.

Thanks Kirsten

 

[paulh]

£145 per person,yes even a baby gets the alowance
Paulh

 

[Zeebs]

£145 per person,yes even a baby gets the alowance
Paulh

Thanks very much for that. Wow I can buy a lot of things with that.

Kirsten

 

[Jakey Rowling]

Under 17s obviously don't have an alcohol or tobacco allowance.
Neither can you "pool" allowances so the single item limit of £145 still applies

See here for more info

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channels...ent&id=HMCE_PROD_010220&propertyType=document

 

[paulh]

when are we going to get the prommised £1,000 limit G brown said he would give us when he was Chancellor
Paulh

 

[Goofyish]

Also remember if you buy something duty free on the way out and then bring it back into the country it counts towards your £145!

 

[Zeebs]

Thanks for all the advice

We don't buy cigerettes or alcohol so that doesn't worry us, but good to know about combining the allowances. I assume by buying and wearing clothes/washing while in America they should probably not be counted on my way back through.

Thank you for the link I will have a read up on that.

Cheers Kirsten

 

[mikki.young]

As someone who goes through the red channel every trip at the moment I can tell you that the customs officials tend to be helpful but it does vary. The one time we had something over the £145 limit the guy did combine our allowances which was nice of him. We have even been let off paying anything quite a few times!

It was about 18 months ago that some new european limit of £340 odd per person was agreed but no sign of that being implemented yet. That would be enough to stop me needing the red channel!

 

[kev kendall]

OH NO!!! I think i've broken the law then!!

I'm sure on our last trip we would have spent more than £145 each!!!

Oh my!!!!

 

[wicket2005]

I assume by buying and wearing clothes/washing while in America they should probably not be counted on my way back through.

Actually you assume wrong, anything you buy is in that £145 allowance.

 

[kev kendall]

This thread has me really worried!

I'm assuming that most people will spend £145 whilst on holiday! Why don't most people gro through the red channel then!????

 

[mickg7dyd]

when are we going to get the prommised £1,000 limit G brown said he would give us when he was Chancellor
Paulh

Hi,
Because we have so little say in the running of our Country any more the EU decided in it's infinite wisdom that a £1000 limit was not acceptable and so we are not allowed to do it. Makes you proud to be English doesn't it?

Mick.

 

[mikki.young]

This thread has me really worried!

I'm assuming that most people will spend £145 whilst on holiday! Why don't most people gro through the red channel then!????

It is £145 per person so if you have several in your family the allowances add up. More people probably ought to go through the red channel and many don't through ignorance.

Many also prefer to take the risk of going green to avoid the duty. If you get stopped in green and searched they will charge absolutely everything they can, VAT, clothes duty etc etc and you will have to prove that you didn't buy stuff that trip.

We choose to go the red channel and have a list of what we have spent by rough category (eg books which they don't normally charge VAT on, DVDs, clothes, shoes and other). The normal and worst we have had is what they call a composite rate of about 21%. This leads to us paying duty of £30 or so. Sometimes they only do 17.5% and usually they keep rounding down the amounts to get it as low as possible. Quite a few times they just don't charge us at all. For doing the right thing I think it is worth going through the red channel.

 

[Goofyish]

This thread has me really worried!

I'm assuming that most people will spend £145 whilst on holiday! Why don't most people gro through the red channel then!????

I also think that some people don't realise what is included in the £145 allowance - it's everything you buy and bring back with you (apart from liquor, perfume and tobacco which have separate allowances). This includes clothing, shoes, trainers, soft toys and even park photos!

 

[Dead-metal]

when are we going to get the prommised £1,000 limit G brown said he would give us when he was Chancellor
Paulh

When you see this.........

 

[Andrew Bichard]

I assume by buying and wearing clothes/washing while in America they should probably not be counted on my way back through.

Actually you assume wrong, anything you buy is in that £145 allowance.

I have been going to WDW now every September for many years. I always buy Disney tee-shirts while I am there. My entire summer wardrobe is almost entirely composed of clothes bought in Florida over the past ten years.

If customs chose to check my suitcase on the way back they would find my suitcase full almost exclusively of clothes bought in Florida, most of which have made trips from Florida to UK and then back again several times.

My wife takes clothes bought on previous trips to New York and wears jewellery bought on a 'Magic' cruise to the Carribean a few years ago. We don't keep any receipts.

I think customs have more important things to check for!!!

Andrew