This is a copy of what I posted
here:
"Duty Free Bonanza at Last" - From Today's Melbourne Herald-Sun
There is really very little change here except for what is effectively an additional restriction of the tobacco product allowance along with a grab for more money should the traveller exceed an allowance.
From 1st February the main "Changes" are:
- AU$400 duty free limit raised to AU$900.
- alcohol allowance will double from 1.125 litres to 2.25 litres
- allowance on tobacco products will remain at 250 cigarettes, or 250g of cigars
- abolition of a $50 waiver on goods declared in excess of duty-free limits
- If an allowance is exceeded, duty will have to be paid on all components of that allowance (not sure if this is for all goods or just alcohol or alcohol and tobacco).
Here is the grab for more money:
Quote:
Unsuspecting travellers could still be hit with costly duty bills, with the abolition of a $50 waiver on goods declared in excess of duty-free limits.
Travellers who exceed the alcohol allowance, for example, currently only pay duty on the bottle which tips the limit.
Under the new system, they will have to pay duty on all the bottles.
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It was the $50 waiver on goods that previously enabled international travellers to bring back either:
- One or Two extra bottle of alcoholic beverages,
- up to an additional AU$500 of dutyable goods or
- up to an extra 175 cigarettes/cigars.
The Alcohol option had been widely advertised in duty free stores, the others, especially tobacco was not.
How the waiver worked was that if any additional duty and tax payable totalled less than $50, nothing would be charged. If it totalled $50 or more, the whole amount became payable. i.e.
- This gave up to an extra $500 on top of the $400 allowance at 10% GST to giving an effecive $900 allowance or
- an extra 175 cigarettes at approx 26¢ excise plus 1.5¢ GST per stick or
- extra quantities of alcohol where the total excise/GST did not reach $50.
(These could be mixed, but let's not complicate things.)
What these changes really mean for cigarettes is that you can bring up to 250 back and pay nothing. If you bring 251, you may have to pay almost $70 more. Today you could bring back up to 425 and generally pay nothing extra.
By extending the duty free allowance to $900, they are merely giving back the $50 GST that generally would have been waived anyway.
This doubling of the alcohol allowance is really the only gain, and only if you bring back up to $900 worth of duty free items as well.
The article does not indicate what is to happen if you bring back $950 worth of duty free goods. Do you pay GST on the $50 excess or on the whole $950?[/url]
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