Custom Limit

OK, I know this is being upped at last to about £1000 of gifts/goods you can bring back from the US now.
Question is has this been implemented yet?
If not is there a date when it is going to be implemented?

Brizzle.

The Customs website currently has £145 as the duty free allowance. www.customs.gov.uk

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by blott
The Customs website currently has £145 as the duty free allowance. www.customs.gov.uk
[/quote]

Glad I din't spend more than that then [msnwink] [msnwink] [msnwink]

Hmmm, found this transcript from a Radio 4 programme...
Doesn't sound too good :

EUGGLEBY: We’ve had a couple of calls who didn’t want to
go on air but were intrigued by my introduction, Paul, when I was
talking about this £1,000 allowance and casting doubts on it, how you actually discovered this.

LEWIS: Well I was on the phone this morning to Maria
Assinakopolou, who is in the Commissioner’s Office in Brussels, and
she was very clear about this. The £145 limit for bringing goods in
from outside the EU into the EU, into the UK, is not our decision, it’s not Gordon Brown’s decision, it’s a European decision. If he wants it raised to £1,000, which he clearly does, he has to write to the Commissioner, which I understand he did last night, and then that has to be decided by unanimous vote of the whole 25 members of the
European Union. And, frankly – though she didn’t say this to me – I
think that’s a little bit unlikely.

DUGGLEBY: The words snowball and hell come to mind.

LEWIS: It’s certainly something the Chancellor can’t do
without the agreement of every other EU nation, and I think some of
those have land borders outside the EU countries and my feeling is it’s unlikely they would agree to it. £1,000 is a lot of money.

DUGGLEBY: So if you’re thinking of bringing back a plasma
screen television from Russia, then I think you might be disappointed.

That basically is what was said when it was first talked about around the time of the budget. The Chancellor is proposing to the other member states that the limit be raised but they said at the time they wouldnt have any decision at least until the end of the year.

Looks like we will have to stay at the £145 limit then for now!!


Surely no one spends more than this on gifts etc anyway? :D:D:D:D:D:D

Well I suppose £145 buys quite a lot of stuff in Florida!!

The answer may be to go out as a big family group, then you don't have to bring back presents for family members!!

Does the allowance cover all member of the party, or is there an age restriction?

I would think the chance of this being upped to £1000 in the near future is about as likely as there being no rain at all this year at the Glastonbury festival!

It infuriates me that they have the final decision as to how much of an allowance we can have....it's a ridiculously small amount at present and desperately needs updating.[V]

What's even more ridiculous though Disney Dreamer is that it isn't even an "allowance as such". We bought back a tool set a couple of years ago which cost $600 which we declared as we re entered, as it was one item we had to pay vat and duty amounting to around 22.5% on the whole $600, they won't deduct the £145 from it. Had it been more than one item then we could have split it so we could have made up a total of £145 and then paid the extra on those above that limit.