Good news for holiday shoppers?

Last updated at 09:08 03 December 2004


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Wayne Rooney's fiancée loves to shop on holiday

There could be good news for holidaymakers in Gordon Brown's budget next spring: the duty-free threshold - which allows travellers to bring back goods from outside the EU without paying tax - may be raised.

The Chancellor says he is to petition the EU to raise the current figure from £145 to a possible £1,000.

The move will be welcomed by Wayne Rooney's fiancée Coleen McLoughlin, who was collared by Customs officers at Manchester airport in October after spending £15,000 during a shopping spree in New York.

Currently, those found to be 'importing' new items worth more than £145 from outside the EU can suffer searches and delays and then still end up with a massive bill for duty and VAT.

Exactly that fate befell Miss McLoughlin, who was presented with a bill for around £3,000 by Customs for her shopping haul, which included designer clothes and platinum jewellery.

At the moment someone buying a £700 camcorder in the U.S. would be hit with import duty of between 4.9 and 14 per cent, depending on the type of goods and even sometimes the brand.

On top of that there would be a further VAT bill of 17.5 per cent, which could take the final tax bill to £237.65.

The same £145 threshold applies to goods bought over the Internet from the U.S. and elsewhere.

The import duty element of the tax goes to the EU, while the VAT goes to the Treasury.

Meanwhile, there are separate duty-free thresholds for tobacco and alcohol imported from non-EU states. The Chancellor is not challenging these.

The current thresholds permit travellers to bring back 200 cigarettes or 100 cigarillos, or 50 cigars or 250g of tobacco.

Also allowed are two litres of still table wine, one litre of spirits, 60cc of perfume and 250cc of eau de toilette.

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