Personal allowance & import taxes

[Dave9LPG]

Hi. :confused2

I'm sure this has probably been covered somewhere already but anyway....

1: What is the personal import allowance?

2: What tax is applicable if this limit is exceeded?

Thanks in advance, Dave.

[ERICSMUM]

The personal allowance is £145, over and above the duty free allowance for ciggies, pefumes, booze etc. This allowance is set by the EU and cannot be varied by Gordon Brown.

Over £145, its difficult to work out how much tax you pay because it depends on the item. Some things have import tax and VAT, some don't have VAT. I believe the import tax has different levels as well. You could try the HM Tax and Customs website, but I can never follow what it says.

By the way, if you buy one item that costs more than £145, tax etc is due on the whole amount, you can't deduct the £145 and pay tax on the rest.

Problem with coming back from Florida is that you are very likely to go over the £145 mark.

I always go through the Red channel and declare my shopping (well, most of it, what I can remember, hee hee) . The most I have paid was £66 (once) but I usually get away with around £18, and on some occasions they have charged me nothing. They seem to make every effort to reduce the tax as much as poss, which is good of them. I go through Red because as a bank manager I would lose my job if found guilty of tax evasion.

Linda:blush:

[Dave9LPG]

Thanks Linda.

Yes, I checked out the Customs & Excise website.
Now, I look something like this....:erm:

Cheers, Dave.