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michilo

After having joined the Schengen system, will Switzerland still be able to offer duty free sales for EU-destinations? I guess, yes?

AHO

Norway is a Schengen member, but not in EU. They have Duty-free for the flights to EU countres, so why not for Switzerland.

huegli

Exactly. Schengen does not contain any duty provisions, as far as I know. That means that importing goods from abroad into Switzerland and vice versa is still subject to duties, which is why duty-free shops should survive....

miles4all

AFAIK there is no duty-free sales of goods within Schengen. Was at AMS where all goods are priced as 'within EU' or 'outside EU'.

whoopster

What is the big mystery? They still sell goods at a "within EU" price and the buyer pays the duty.

Just because they have shops at the airport, that does not always imply that the goods are sold duty-free. @:-)

I would recommend a basis course in economics for you.

airoli

That's precisely the point, there are no duty free sales within the EU, but Schengen is not = EU. Norway for instance (and maybe soon Switzerland) are members of the Schengen zone, but not of the EU.

AHO

I've forgort to say.
United Kingdom and Ireland are NOT Schengen member, But in EU.
Iceland is a Schengen member, but NOT in EU.

Far north in Europe, Spitsbergen (Svalbard) is Norweigian territory. But not in Schengen. (You'll get Schengen stamp at entry into mainland Norway.)
You can shop Duty-free between mainland Norway and Spitsbergen.

House

Just to clarify:

Schengen is an agreement regarding IMMIGRATION checks. It has absolutely nothing to do with the availability of duty free, or EU Membership.

The UK and Ireland are EU Members and so do not have duty free. They are not members of Schengen, so you still have passport and customs checks.

So CH should still sell duty free.

Roger

Could you clarify the clarification ?

The UK and Ireland most certainly do have duty free - how else would BAA prosper - they make more from the LHR etc shopping malls than from aircraft movements.

Items which have duty in High Street shops - alcohol, tobacco etc - are for sale at duty free shops, but only to passengers with boarding cards for flights outside the EU. These products are alongside other products which do not have duty anyway, and which are sold at normal retail prices minus the equivalent of 17.5% tax rate, i.e. the prices do include VAT but are sold at a discount compared with the High Street.

For example, I would never ever buy anything at Dixons - except at LHR or STN where I can get a 15% or more discount.


Oh by the way, what's that nonsense under your name about Brussels being the federal capital of Europe? Have you heard something the rest of us haven't ?

House

OK. Once upon a time the then EU Member States agreed that, once they got rid of import tariffs and duties between EU countries, they should no longer be able to restrict what anyone brings across EU borders (unless it is something that would be illegal such as drugs). The upside was that you or I (when i lived in the UK) could pop over to Calais and load the car up with vin rouge without anyone being able to charge us duty or VAT on the whole lot when we got back to Dover. The downside was supposed to be the abolition of duty free between EU countries.

This finally happened in 1998 or so, following several delays. At the time there was much talk about the end of duty free, which the Dover-Calais ferries and most UK airports depend on for a fair slice of their income. Since then, UK airports (and many others) have decided that, since for most items the only tax on them was VAT, they would sell everything at "VAT-free prices" (i.e. discount them by roughly 17.5%), the idea being that a lower progit is better than no profit. Where the level of duty is too high to feasibly subsidise (tobacco, cigarettes) they banned sales to travellers within the EU (hence, at LHR, when you go into the main duty free shops the bit with cigarettes and most alcohol has green labelling on the shelves saying "For travellers outside the EU only". This is the true duty free stuff. for everything else, if you are travelling within the EU you are basically shopping at a discount store - the shop has to pay VAT on all the perfumes, shirts, video cameras, ferrero rocher etc that you buy. They still make a profit due to the enormous volumes they sell, allowing them to buy at very nice wholesale prices. This is not the killing they used to make on genuine duty free, but better than nothing.

Of course if you are travelling outside the EU the prices you pay at LHR are the same (at many airport in other EU countries you pay a lower price), and the level of profit for BAA is 17.5% higher because they don't pay VAT on that sale.

Everyone is happy - we still get to buy stuff a bit cheaper, and BAA still make money too. That said the prices are not always THAT good - I can usually match Dixons for instance by buying from a UK retailer online.

Of course part of why this whole system works is the inflated prices we are paying in the UK for certain goods in the first place...

In order to work out what BAA have to pay VAT on, they ask you for your flight number when you buy something, and "INTRA EU" or "NON EU" appears on the till receipt. WHSmith don't bother because they have decided to charge you VAT regardless (though there is no VAT on books anyway).

In other EU countries (Belgium for instance), the level of duty on tobacco and alcohol is much lower than the UK and Scandinavia. So they sell duty paid cigarettes (at, say EUR40 for 200) alongside duty free ones (at, say EUR28 for 200). UK and Sandinavian passengers buy the duty paid ones because they are still much cheaper than at home. Same applies in Italy and Spain.

The Brussels bit is meant to be a joke (there are actually people here, as I'm discovering, who really do seem to think this is true!).

hfly

The joke of course being that in the UK, the duty free stores forgot what "duty free" actually meant at the time of privatizing the airports. Duty free means free of impoort and excise taxes, hence why even at "duty free" prices cigarrettes are still something stupid like 3 pounds a pack in the UK, when the FOB price they pay is closer to 30p. It's absolutely ridiculous and mostly down to an old outdated ad slogan perpetuated by BAA "Shop Duty Free and save the VAT" most Brits were to stupid to know the difference. That added to the savings over "high street stores" clinched it. Sort of like people that exchange all their money before they arrive at a destination and willingly lose 3-20% in the process!

Roger

House, I think we're saying pretty much the same - it was only the reference 'The UK and Ireland are EU Members and so do not have duty free' which was potentially confusing when of course the duty free shops do sell duty free items, to some passengers at leat.

Hfly, in this capitalist world, it's a case of what the market will bear! Personally, I never buy in the so-called duty free shops and prefer to buy relevant goods tax paid in France or Belgium or wherever, lower (almost invisible) duty and sometimes lower VAT.

Land-of-Miles

OT I know but regrettably few organisations have ever lost money by basing their business models on the gullibility/stupidity of the British Public, who by and large only have themselves to blame for the Rip-Off Britain label by continuing to pay way over the odds for anything from a CD to a book. Thank God for the Internet, which is now putting really strong pressure upon some of the main culprits (a certain retailer of electrical goods for example).