Potential Internet Goldmine Gunned Down by Brussels

[vincevincevince]

A loophole which would have allowed Internet retailers to make a fortune selling alcohol from EU states with low duty directly to customers where there is high duty has been gunned down by Brussels in the face of worries from local businesses over competition.

Have a gander at the BBC article [news.bbc.co.uk]

What it boiled down to was whether paying someone to courier alcohol from another member state counted as you bringing it into the country yourself. In a decision which will ruin Christmas for all would-be trans-European Internet offies, Brussels decided that it doesn't work that way.

Please remember to keep politics out of it

[glengara]

As a Samson smoker paying 14.30 in Ireland against 4.80 in Holland I'd been keeping my fingers crossed...:-(

[engine]

...in the face of worries from local businesses over competition.

I'm sure that was part of it, but the other, and most important part, must have been the threat of loss of tax income from high tax countries.

[Crush]

It really pissed on our fire. We were off to Latvia on Monday to get a warehouse to sell cigs and booze all over Europe. Terrible day for the consumer. EU single market, Pah! Anything that is a huge source of rev for states they will protect it. It was pressure for sure from the high taxed states that got this overturned.
Cars in Scandinavia have up to 200% registration tax which is another injustice. SO you can buy cheap in Europe but they shaft you when you get your local plates. Driving on foreign plates is forbidden, so they get their money. #*$!s.

[rj87uk]

it. It was pressure for sure from the high taxed states that got this overturned

Surely the UK has to top the "tax" chart? Does anyone have any tax charts?!

[Crush]

8 highly taxed states. UK, Sweden, Finland, Ireland are in the top 4. Others at a guess are Denmark, Italy, Austria, Greece.

[Leosghost]

depends if you calculate using income tax / corp tax / direct / indirect and stealth taxes and include vat ( and what it is levied on and at what rate varies across the EU )..and then there are mandatory social contributions etc at differing rates ..local ( town level ) taxes on services ( such as water and electricity supply ) which are variable ..and blanket taxes in the name of solidarity such as our CSG ..

[Crush]

On about taxes on cigarettes and alcohol.

Pack of 20 in the UK 5 GBP in Latvia 0.40 pence. Oh the money we could have made <sob> The previous countries I listed have high taxes on booze and cigs.

[Leosghost]

without wishing to rub it in further ..IMO it would have been somewhat naive to say the least to imagine that you could have traded in these items without immediately gaining unwanted "partners" from within the ex URSS "business" community ..

similar differentials in duty rates exist across many of the countries in southern Europe ..many have ben tempted to enter this "grey market" ..forgetting that it is already run by very powerfull groups who do not tolerate newcomers ..

I do know of which I speak

you are best off out of it ..

[Crush]

We have offices in Poland, Bulgaria and the Ukraine and I live in the Czech Republic. Mafia smafia.

I used to hear that all the time from the locals when we set up here. Someone said to me in Slovakia once" if people do not understand a business or how they make money, it has to be mafia"

You have been watching too much TV :)

[Leosghost]

nope ..I was in grey market in 89 to 92 cigs and booze ..some branded textile products , leather goods etc ..

mainly mediteranean transhipping ..

had a mate Ukranian ( who in the lived in the Ukraine and Canada ) ..used to ship metals and cement etc out to the far east and get himself paid in Canada ..then buy his hotels in blacksea area ..

last saw him when he was buying a hotel in Cannes where I used to live ..

lots of legit businesses in the old east block ..but cigs and booze is "reserved" ..

[edited by: Leosghost at 4:03 pm (utc) on Nov. 24, 2006]

[SlyOldDog]

So I take it you really are Leo's Ghost? Did the mafia get you?

[Crush]

Dodgy #*$! leosghost :) Well maybe it is good it has not happened. Now I am no merchant of death. Gordon Brown is with his 15 bln in stealth taxes. Mr big.

[balam]

Forget the thread topic - how about that bat-sized Toblerone bar? I bet you could club an elephant to death with that!

Me want.

Now.

Mmmmm... May the Gods smile upon the Maya for discovering the cacao, and the Aztec for giving us the name xocolatl.