Can anyone help with Rolex pricing?
Discussion
Ok time for some perspective on this Customs and Excise things and some of the scare stories being portrayed by posters with possibly little real life experience of this.
I remember going on a childhood package holiday when I was a child and coming back through customs when my parents had slightly more alcohol and a couple of other items above the limit. They ended up being fined and I think a couple of the items were confiscated until they paid the duty. They did not as it did not make financial sense.
So ever since that time, I dutifully checked my allowances and would go to the Red channel to declare items be they watches, cameras etc etc. I did this for many years but in reality even the customs officers were bemused and did not seem interested. In essence, they consult their customs tables, work out the price and you can pay via cash, debit or credit card. You get a receipt for duty paid but they are not interested in the items you declare. For example on watches they don't take a note of any of the serial numbers etc and the receipt does not detail any of this. In essence, it is money for nothing.
Eventually, I worked out I was paying money for nothing and nowadays do not bother.
Sure customs and excise look for obvious things and sure if their suspicions are raised then they can do checking but in reality their prime role is not looking for your average traveller who may have gone over his/her allowance. They have far more serious issues to deal with.
I remember going on a childhood package holiday when I was a child and coming back through customs when my parents had slightly more alcohol and a couple of other items above the limit. They ended up being fined and I think a couple of the items were confiscated until they paid the duty. They did not as it did not make financial sense.
So ever since that time, I dutifully checked my allowances and would go to the Red channel to declare items be they watches, cameras etc etc. I did this for many years but in reality even the customs officers were bemused and did not seem interested. In essence, they consult their customs tables, work out the price and you can pay via cash, debit or credit card. You get a receipt for duty paid but they are not interested in the items you declare. For example on watches they don't take a note of any of the serial numbers etc and the receipt does not detail any of this. In essence, it is money for nothing.
Eventually, I worked out I was paying money for nothing and nowadays do not bother.
Sure customs and excise look for obvious things and sure if their suspicions are raised then they can do checking but in reality their prime role is not looking for your average traveller who may have gone over his/her allowance. They have far more serious issues to deal with.
Buying a £7000 watch for which £1400 is due is exactly what they are looking for. They can stop you at any time in the future and ask you to prove that it originated in the EU and duty has been paid on it. They know where it was first sold from the serial number. Unlikely but it happens
findtomdotcom said:
Ah yes the unlimited supply in Karama Market.....
Yes, if the Karama market is in the marina mall at the end of the corniche, where the Rolex dealer has a shop on the first floor selling only Rolex's with a massive Rolex sign above his shop, then your probably right. Probably all fakes.michael gould said:
The Revenue also gets information from less obvious sources, such as adverts on noticeboards in newsagents, stories in local newspapers, and even social networking sites, such as Facebook or Twitter.
To be honest, I don't believe HMRC have the resources to trawl Facebook or Twitter.I know several people who work in the Middle East and are paid in to UK bank accounts from Dubai. The payments are in excess of £10k per payment (and at least one per month) and so the banks should be alerting HMRC of the payments under money laundering regulations.
The people come and go from the Middle East, posting on Facebook and Twitter, and have never been investigated.
I know guys that have been doing this for more than 7 years, and been posting on FB since FB started. Not one has ever even been asked to fill in a tax return.
Even my accountant, who works for a large, very reputable accounting firm in Scotland (with office in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen) has said that if I received payment from outside the UK to a personal account, HMRC would effectively be unable to trace my income.
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