The End Of Cheap Jersey Goods??

[saltysam]

Nicked from elsewhere...

It's beginning to look as though the writing is on the wall for the Channel Islands based mail order businesses.

The background:

The Channel Islands, whilst geographically very near to the UK, are outside of the European Union but also have a special Customs relationship withthe United Kingdom as they are what is known as a Crown Peculiar. They also share English as a common language and use the Pound Sterling as currency and goods from the Islands are not subject to Duty.

All goods imported into the European Union are subject to import charges in the form of Duty and VAT. However, under European Directive, all Member States have to provide Low Value Consignment Relief (LVCR); this means that individual consignments below a given value are exempt from charges. The objective was to prevent national Customs from being clogged up trying to administer many small items, also the admin costs usually outweigh revenue raised on low-value items. The Directive establishes minimum and maximum LVCR rates, these being 10 and 22 euro. A Member State can set LVCR as it pleases, between these values. The UK chose to adopt the maximum although many others chose the minimum.

These factors combined mean that it is commercially viable to adopt a circular trade, whereby goods are exported on a commercial basis to the Islands and then exported in the form of mail order packages under the LVCR threshold. Essentially, it is a mechanism whereby goods are made available to UK shoppers without VAT.

UK based retail stores have been agitating for some while to have this 'loophole' closed. They have become more strident since a lot of stores (such as Amazon and Tesco) have opened fulfillment centres specifically to take advantage of it (as opposed to Play, for example, who are solely based in Jersey).

The Treasury, under Labour, was disinclined to take action. But it seems that George Osborne is about to grasp the nettle - the matter was raised in the Lords recently and it was stated that ministers hoped to make an announcement in the Budget.

There are several things he could do. The easiest and cheapest would be to lower the LVCR threshold to the minimum (10 euro, about £8.50). This would place many more items in the 'net', killing a lot of the trade of the likes of Tesco. It would also impact Play - but they do have an arrangement whereby they pre-pay VAT charges should they be due. They would obviously be paying much more often than now.

Also possible, but less likely due to the confusion, disruption it and administrative costs it would cause would be to exempt mail order items from the LCVR tax relief. It is possible to do this on either specific goods, or those originating from a particular territory although it must be shown that it is being doing for objective reasons (eg, stopping tax avoidance) and is not discriminatory.

This is what Finland did, when presented with a similar problem regarding the Aland Islands.

Lastly, it is possible to adopt a similar measure, but at EU level.

The upshot is, I think that CD's and DVD's coming from outside the UK are about to get quite a bit more expensive. At the very least, to stop Customs charges, you'll need to keep them under £8, not £18...

[Markgway]

Greedy government bastards.

[grim_tales]

WTF? So the customs limit might be £8 in the future?

[Yi-Long]

So....!? It just means that I'll buy less DVD's, games, Blu-Rays, and I'll start downloading a whole lot more. Fuck the greedy government.

[bradavon]

The upshot is, I think that CD's and DVD's coming from outside the UK are about to get quite a bit more expensive. At the very least, to stop Customs charges, you'll need to keep them under £8, not £18...

Are you sure this low limit doesn't just refer to products from Jersey?

[saltysam]

Customs limit reduced from £18 to £15 while that's not as bad as the £8 mooted,importing from the usa is now going to be even more prohibitively expensive.

[bradavon]

. What's your source please?

[saltysam]

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2011/tiin6820.pdf

[gasteropod]

[romerojpg]

I remember people posting similar things about when it was supposed to be raised to £28 for overseas tax, nothing came of that.

[saltysam]

I remember people posting similar things about when it was supposed to be raised to £28 for overseas tax, nothing came of that.

i know the government lie but this was announced in today's budget,so what do you mean,nothing will come of it?they aren't going to backtrack.

[romerojpg]

When we start to get hit in our wallets then I will cry - the bastards

[bradavon]

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2011/tiin6820.pdf

. For me, I rarely buy stuff over £15 abroad any more. The low GBP has seen to that but it still sucks!

[saltysam]

It'll affect me mainly with the odd order from Amazon.com,they sometimes have nice deals (ie black friday) at $10-$11 ,i usually combine them and ordering two at that price kept them safe from customs-it won't anymore.

[Markgway]

It'll affect me mainly with the odd order from Amazon.com,they sometimes have nice deals (ie black friday) at $10-$11 ,i usually combine them and ordering two at that price kept them safe from customs-it won't anymore.

Same here to split the postage.

Greedy government cuntfaces.

[grim_tales]

Government bastards - there was some stuff I was thinking of getting from Amazon.com (Blow Out Criterion BD, Shrek The Whole Story BD etc), now I'm bound to be nabbed

[romerojpg]

I am glad I dont bother with overseas Blu Ray much (unless you havew to go to certain country for a certain disc), as frankly they cost too much and UK sales beat them by miles usually. I own a fraction of overseas Blu Rays, all of which would have been caught by customs under new laws lol fingers crossed no price declaring takes off bigtime again

[Markgway]

Government bastards - there was some stuff I was thinking of getting from Amazon.com (Blow Out Criterion BD, Shrek The Whole Story BD etc), now I'm bound to be nabbed

You'll be alright until Novemeber. The implementation doesn't come into immediate effect.

I am glad I dont bother with overseas Blu Ray much (unless you havew to go to certain country for a certain disc), as frankly they cost too much and UK sales beat them by miles usually. I own a fraction of overseas Blu Rays, all of which would have been caught by customs under new laws lol fingers crossed no price declaring takes off bigtime again

I have more UK discs but not by that much. Many titles are better in or exclusive to the USA.

[romerojpg]

I have more UK discs but not by that much. Many titles are better in or exclusive to the USA.

I own a pretty large amount of Blu Rays, not many of them are exclusive or better over there of the titles I own. or I guess I just dont bother with certain films

[Markgway]

I own a pretty large amount of Blu Rays, not many of them are exclusive or better over there of the titles I own. or I guess I just dont bother with certain films

I suspect you buy a lot of films I wouldn't...

[saltysam]

last thing i remember,could've changed was that Romero wasn't multi-region for BD.that would certainly limit his usa/hk buying.

[romerojpg]

I am recently multiregion now, but still dont even own one multiregion disc very few that I want apart from a few Criterions at the moment (which I am waiting to see how their UK couterparts turn out before bothering). Well until I see a few I want cheap

[bradavon]

What BD MR Player did you go for?

[saltysam]

I am recently multiregion now, but still dont even own one multiregion disc very few that I want apart from a few Criterions at the moment (which I am waiting to see how their UK couterparts turn out before bothering). Well until I see a few I want cheap

Why did you go multi-region then? personally i'm not prepared to be hamstrung by Region B.even if there was one must have title i couldn't have due to region coding it would piss me off immensely!

[saltysam]

while we're discussing multi-region i'll mention A.I. & People Vs. Larry Flynt usa discs are Region Coded,a Paramount release.bit odd to see Paramount starting to Region code more now,The Fighter is also region locked.