No More Restrictions
As we’re all now getting pretty savvy with the whole shopping on the internet malarkey, the wine industry has seen a massive increase in purchases and smaller businesses are really starting to take off.
There are many contributing factors to this rise, but the fact that there are no restrictions as to what you may find online, boutique producers can access the far flung corners of the Earth with a reasonable price tag on their bottle.
Retailers that customers find online often buy direct from the wineries which cuts down the cost for everyone, but a little bit of research may pay off with some businesses showing evidence of misleading customers. Some can be seen claiming they have a stock of thousands of bottles and come direct from the wineries, when actually they are small convenience stores ordering on demand, from places you could go to direct yourself.
Tax dodgers
Although businesses misleading customers in regards to what they stock sounds bad enough, there is something far worse taking hold in the UK. Due to the strict tax on alcohol in the UK, continental retailers are targeting British consumers and selling to them without paying UK Duty on the items. The websites look legit (www.weinbaule.de) and claim all is above board, but if you get caught you’re up for the high jump, and the owners aren’t going to be penalised.
Under UK law you are more than welcome to bring any reasonable quantity of wine into the UK as long as:
- You physically accompany the goods – i.e. you cannot do it by mail order/internet/courier
- The wine must be for your own consumption – i.e. not for resale or use in a restaurant/pub etc
There are other companies as well as Weinbaule doing this. Uvinum for example who up till last week were advertising 1 litre of Smirnoff for £10.50 delivered into the UK. There is UK excise duty of over £10 per litre plus VAT meaning the tax alone even if the vodka was free would be over £12.
UK excise duty fraud on alcohol costs the Treasury over 1 billion pounds every year and of course we’d all like to save money, but its quite eveident that there’s also a growing resentment in the UK for companies who take part in tax avoidance/evasion to this scale.
To wrap things up, if you buy online make sure everything’s above board and do a bit of research before hitting the purchase button!
By Connell Green
Google
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