All Dixons Travel stores to close after ban on tax free shopping

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• BSP says:

  28 Apr28 April 13:16

  I work in luxury retail selling jewellery costing £10-500K.

  What will happen now is that the Chinese tourist will go to France for TAX Free shopping.
  The British people will go to France for TAX FREE shopping also.

  But the French will not come here to do TAX FREE shopping as they can not.

  Overall it is a loose loose situation.
  I don’t see a reason why they would do this.

  • Nick says:

    28 Apr28 April 13:48

    They don’t come here with the sole purpose of shopping, it’s a sideline with tourist activity. It will continue as the UK will remain a favourite place to come.

    And maybe we could use the extra tax revenue we receive to improve funding in our education system… so people learn the difference between ‘lose’ and ‘loose’.

    • KBuffett says:

      28 Apr28 April 14:06

      The high spenders come to London to shop. Everything else is secondary.

      • meta says:

        28 Apr28 April 14:12

        That might be the case for first timers, but repeat visitors are what you want and repeat visitors are those who come to shop. This is why Oxford/Regent were packed year-round. You didn’t see that many people around attractions year-round.

        • KBuffett says:

          28 Apr28 April 20:20

          The UHNW spenders are not shopping on Oxford St.

    • Andy says:

      28 Apr28 April 14:39

      People probably will still come here, but if they’re going to more than one country during a European trip this might make them more likely to make a large purchase in another country.

      • Mike says:

        28 Apr28 April 14:56

        Who cares about tourists spending £10 in H&M? The big spenders on Old Bond Street, the sea of people at Harrod’s / Selfridges VAT reclaim section are the big dogs. The Chinese / Arabs literally fly here just to shop. They’ll be all gone now. Lose lose for the UK.

        Separately, if I’m in Paris and flying back to UK, can I claim VAT now?

        • Rob says:

          28 Apr28 April 15:26

          Potentially – but you need to declare it and pay VAT when you land here.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          28 Apr28 April 16:49

          @Rob that was exactly the same if you were buying vat free at LHR while on the way out of the EU and flying back with it.

        • NFH says:

          28 Apr28 April 18:13

          Yes, if you shop in Paris, you can use an app like http://www.zapptax.com to claim back French VAT. But I don’t think it will work well for one-day trips such as booze runs to Calais.

    • Rich says:

      28 Apr28 April 16:50

      Yes they do.

    • MarkS says:

      28 Apr28 April 16:59

      Hahahaha, brilliant!

  • C says:

    28 Apr28 April 14:30

    It’s a very anti-foreigner policy, basically viewing foreign visitors as coming purely to rip off UK tax revenues (or alternatively, as cash cows for UK tax). Never mind the revenue (and associated corporation tax) they generate for retailers by providing a small stimulus to shopping, as well as the revenue and profits (and associated VAT) for hotels, accommodation, other tourist venues, etc. If one has ever looked at the stacks of receipts that some foreign tourists present for VAT reclaim at LHR departures, one can begin to grasp the quantum of money at stake. Many of those tourists will have no difficulty going to Milan, Madrid or Paris instead of London; the UK was already anecdotally losing out due to tougher tourist visa requirements, compared to the Schengen zone. Add in a stronger GBP, and the UK looks even less desirable.

    While grasping at this revenue, the UK is losing VAT elsewhere. for example, some exports of services previously subject to UK VAT or reverse charge VAT in the recipient country are now VAT exempt. My feeling is that the revenue loss from this, and similar changes, will far outweigh any revenue gains from eliminating the VAT exempt schemes.

    • Andrew says:

      28 Apr28 April 16:26

      How on earth is it an “anti-foreigner policy”? All it does is ask them to pay the same amount of tax as a local.

      • C says:

        28 Apr28 April 16:50

        As compared to the historical status quo, it discourages foreign visitors, many of whom came to the UK to in large part to shop and spend money in UK retail (and on associated activities, such as hotel, restaurant, and cultural attractions). You can argue that the benefit should never have existed, but at some point there had been a policy determination that it should. Now, the impact of removing it should be considered, not just on the intellectual consistency of tax policy (if there is such a thing) but also on the behavior of the persons impacted, and the economic consequences of changes in spending patterns.

        • chabuddy geezy says:

          28 Apr28 April 20:13

          Nick you do not understand how international tourism works.

        • Andrew says:

          29 Apr29 April 06:26

          So rather than the new policy being anti-foreigner what you meant to say was that foreigners used to be discriminated for whereas now we’re all treated equally?

          You can argue about whether the total tax take will be higher or lower but either way that seems ‘fairer’ to me.

• BS says:

  28 Apr28 April 13:19

  Dixons travel was nearly always poor value, and frequently gave small discounts knowing they would get the full 20% back themselves.
  Their only use was when there was a cheap deal on elsewhere – they had a very aggressive price match policy in which more than the difference was given back, so it worked out cheaper. Got a very cheap ipad that day!

• Smid says:

  28 Apr28 April 13:21

  They were barely there in recent years anyway.

  I remember constantly visiting them in BHX around 2000 and there was a discount. Once the duty free was gone, they still dropped the VAT. After a while that stopped and even if flying outside the EU you didn’t get anything off, so I stopped bothering.

  I’m going to assume something will sell spare headphones and the type of stuff you’ve forgotten on the way to the airport, but the rest, expensive electronic gear and cameras, weren’t worth the bother since about 2005.

• John says:

  28 Apr28 April 13:56

  On the subject of airports, and specifically Heathrow, this is spot on:

  https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2021/apr/27/petulant-heathrow-should-stop-whining-about-26bn-covid-costs

  • Andrew says:

    28 Apr28 April 14:37

    They should avoid the “whining” finger pointing when there’s a whiny beg at the foot of every article.

    • Kevin D says:

      28 Apr28 April 19:37

      Agree

    • John says:

      28 Apr28 April 23:21

      If you pay for a subscription, the “whiny beg” disappears.

  • Nick says:

    28 Apr28 April 14:47

    Logically yes, hard not to agree with the article. But it shows a lack of understanding of how HAL’s funding structure works… they are allowed to pass all costs onto customers, meaning shareholders never have to lose out. Clearly it *shouldn’t* be that way, but that’s how it’s been set up, so you can see why they’re upset by the result.

• Memesweeper says:

  28 Apr28 April 14:48

  RIP Dixons. I made a point of pre-haggling on the phone for items from T5 and 3 in the past and saved significantly. Walk in and collect. Always a UK/EU departure so the taxman lost nothing… just taking advantage of the crosssubsidy from long haul VAT that was unpaid.

• Sukes says:

  28 Apr28 April 15:19

  Northern Ireland is open for tax free shopping for overseas visitors travelling to destinations outside GB and EU, if I’ve read the detail right, including passengers transiting through GB if the goods are in kept in hold luggage. Don’t expect many shop keepers here to have a notion what you’re talking about if you ask for VAT refund forms tho. And if you ask for Hermes you’ll be sent to a parcel shop https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-vat-back-on-tax-free-shopping-in-northern-ireland#section6

  • Lady London says:

    28 Apr28 April 17:33

    😉 Ta @Sukes

• YC says:

  28 Apr28 April 18:14

  Where is the best place in Europe to shop now? I heard you can get 17% back in Spain for high end stuff

  • DWB1873 says:

    28 Apr28 April 19:35

    Jersey or Guernsey are potential left field options. Still in GB, yet no VAT.

    Retailers still bump prices unfortunately and Jersey has 5% GST (Guernsey currently doesn’t) but maybe an opportunity….

    • Tony says:

      28 Apr28 April 22:29

      I bought a Fat Face top in Guernsey from their local store. Exactly the same price as it was being sold for in the UK.

      On the subject of the UK tax change, less than 20 years ago you used to be able to reclaim Canadian taxes charged on your hotel room if non- resident. They rightly closed that down!

      • Rob says:

        29 Apr29 April 07:00

        This is simply to cover the extra costs of doing business in Jersey and Guernsey, arguably.

    • Joe says:

      29 Apr29 April 10:59

      Switzerland is far cheaper than the uk for electronics etc.

• Andy D says:

  28 Apr28 April 19:53

  I got £100 off my blackberry at Dixon’s Gatwick years back because they doubled price differences and Amazon had it at £50 cheaper!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.