Originally Posted by
Swampz64
"Buy on of their watches on the cheap" it's nothing of the sort, it's the tax you dont pay, Rolex get exactly the same.
If the watch is £1200 with the VAT paid, you pay £1000 and thats what Rolex would have got after paying HMG the tax.
This is not the case with EU sales.
The retailer still has to pay a proportion of the VAT.
So if you for instance pay £1000 the retail will pay a portion on top.
When I used to work for retail the proportion of VAT payable to HMRC was based on the percentage of sales to EU/exEU. This is why capturing the flight data is so important for retailers.
There are several scheme out there that each retailer can use, but it's a common myth that the retailer does not need to pay VAT on all its airside sales.
This is why you have some retailers who don't reduce by the full 20% as they need to cover their VAT payment on EU sales.