Originally Posted by Globaliser
I don't agree. There's something fundamentally unfair about a system which will allow you to bring in 2.25 litres without any charge as it's your "allowance", but then charges you for the whole of 2.3 litres should you bring that in. The concept of an "allowance" suggests that only the excess over the allowance should be charged for. I can't readily think of any other quantitative allowances that work like this.
UK Duty Free has some similar concepts. If you were to bring in, say, a laptop computer worth GBP1000, you would be charged VAT on the whole GBP1000 rather than the excess over the GBP450 (iirc) allowance since you cannot claim allowance on any item which in itself exceeds the allowance.
Admittedly, if you bring in 3 litres of spirits into the UK, you would only be charged for 2 litres duty over the 1 litre allowance rather than the whole amount.
Dave