I am confused by the customs rules stated in the HMRC official website page about bringing goods into the UK from outside the EU.

According to the site, travellers are allowed to bring in up to £390.00 value of goods into the UK duty free. Anything over this duty-free allowance is subject to 2.5% customs duty.

It applies even to goods for self-use (i.e. not commercial use and not for re-selling), i.e. personal belongings. And it applies to all goods other than tobacco and alcohol.

So a laptop and smartphone and clothes and cameras would count under such rules.

I am confused because the literal meaning of these rules does not mesh with what happens in practice at all.

According to the rules on the official website, a traveller bringing nothing but a laptop and his smartphone (mid-range at least) would already be subject to customs duty everytime he travelled into the UK, and would be slapped with 2.5% customs duty each time on the same laptop and smartphone.

That's because most mid-range laptops and smartphones would already exceed that duty free allowance.

And in real life, most travellers will bring more than just a laptop and smartphone. They will bring cameras, clothes, goods, gifts, souvenirs, food.

So, according to these rules, travellers would routinely be slapped with customs duty every time they visit the UK.

But that is not what happens in practice at all.

Yes, I know that most people pass through customs not declaring anything all the time and never pay any duty.

But is that the answer? That it is simply a lottery of seeing if you can get away with it without being caught?

That doesn't seem to be a satisfactory answer at all. Isn't the UK about the rule of law?

Legal rules should be reasonable. We shouldn't have unreasonable rules that people need to get around by seeing if they can get away without being caught.

Am I missing something? Is there some legal exemption or allowance that I have missed?

Please fill me in.