Heathrow Airport discount?

[Oryx]

Originally Posted by Ruud Van Driver

Not sure what you mean here. If you buy at the airport, you don't get your VAT back because you don't pay any in the first place.

When buying in the airport the price is the retail price less VAT, which is about 16.67% as you correctly state. A lot of people are under the impression that it's 20%; 20% is the VAT added to the base price which then forms the retail price.

If buying outside, you claim your tax refund back at the airport. It works out at about 13.8% of the price paid. I had a refund of about £820 on my BLNR and £1,138 on my D-Blue, both of which were purchased at ADs before the recent price hike. Whn buying lesser value goods, claiming VAT refunds on the land side of security is a bit more hit and miss because the cash counter takes a commission too.

I mistakenly wrote on here before that it was the UK government taking an 'admin fee'. It's actually the retailer that gets the admin fee, not the tax man.

Going back to the OP, I had the impression that there might have been a discount on a Hublot at Watches of Switzerland. I didn't push it because I wasn't interested but you have zero chance of scoring a discount on a Rolex.

not sure which part you didn't understand - the price you pay at the airport is exclusive of the VAT and this equates to a reduction of the rrp by 16.67% not 20% as people mistakenly believe.

The reason you get 13.8% is that the difference equates to fees taken by firms such as Global Blue and Premier Tax Free. If you deal with AD's that process VAT themselves then you can also get 16.67% by buying from an AD.

[Rolex boy 27]

Me and a friend are looking to buy our first Rolex. We’ve heard it’s best to buy from Heathrow. Does anyone know if we can buy a flight to somewhere outside of the EU, to get us inside the terminal. Buy the watch we want when it’s in stock. Then miss the flight and walk out again. Or would we have problems with this?

[beshannon]

Originally Posted by Rolex boy 27

Me and a friend are looking to buy our first Rolex. We’ve heard it’s best to buy from Heathrow. Does anyone know if we can buy a flight to somewhere outside of the EU, to get us inside the terminal. Buy the watch we want when it’s in stock. Then miss the flight and walk out again. Or would we have problems with this?

Seriously?

[jlovda]

I mentioned this in another thread regarding my purchase in Norway. I paid list at an AD but was dumb not to at least ask for one. Norway has a sliding scale through Global Blue; my EXP II at NOK 72000 (about $8500) was 18%. The max is 20% over about $10K. My credit card gave me a very good rate for the purchase plus no 3% foreign transaction fee. However, Global Blue gives you the 18% back through your credit card but converts it to dollars before sending it at the terrible foreign exchange storefront rate. Lost about $170 on that portion.

[Rolex boy 27]

Apologies if it’s a stupid question, or if someone’s has covered this already. Can you shine some light?

[Yodel]

I bought a TT DJ 41 from them n November 16 and they wouldn’t budge on price as i was getting it for 18% off essentially

[accountank2000]

Originally Posted by Rolex boy 27

Apologies if it’s a stupid question, or if someone’s has covered this already. Can you shine some light?

So, you go through security so you are 'plane side' in one of the terminals. You go to a store to buy something 'duty free' and don't pay vat or duty on the basis that that part of the airport was 'in international waters'' and you're travelling ex-EU.

Then you decide to miss your flight, and need to get back into the UK so you go through customs and declare your items so that you can pay your vat and duty rather than committing tax fraud.

This method doesn't seem to save any money.

Or, method 2, you buy something from a boutique which charges you the full tax and duty but you plan to use one of the customs admin services once you get back home (such as Global Blue mentioned upthread), who offer a service to non-EU residents where they claim the VAT back on your behalf and take a cut for themselves and the retailer for performing the admin work.

Except, you can't (without committing tax fraud) tell the tax authorities and Global Blue that you are a non-EU resident living overseas, because, you're not.

So, the tax refund is £0 and if the company charged you a fee for their help in claiming that £0, you would end up owing them money.

So as with method 1, you wouldn't save any money.

Do you have an alternate way of avoiding the VAT which you were envisaging, which is simple and reliable and doesn't involve tax fraud? I suspect not.

The reason to use a UK/EU airport dealer as a UK/EU resident would be if they have stock that nobody else has, or if they are willing to give big discounts. But as so many of their customers are wealthy international travelers who are legitimately avoiding the VAT, they have no real need to discount.

[Beckster]

I’m not sure about UK but I think the same rules will apply. In Singapore if you do that you will deemed as abusing the system and probably be charged. Not allowed to do that. A few people have found out the hard way, been caught and reported in the papers.

[R!$]

depends on watch