Some Duty Free Questions :)

[Hugo24]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to Australia, originally from Europe, and am glad to have found this forum.

Unlike in Europe, I saw you can get stuff duty free when flying internationally. But then, on my daily walk to work I noticed that I have a high street JR Duty Free store in the city (ie off-airport). Out of curiosity I walked in and was told that all items are sold duty free under the condition that they would be taken abroad.

To make sure this was the case, people would have to hand in the receipt and non-liquid items to a customs official at the airport. In case of alcohol or perfume, you'd have to put it into your checked bag and hand in the receipt as well... So I thought to myself, what if someone buys items 20 days in advance and forgets to either take them to the airport, put them into the bag or forget to hand in the receipt. The reply was "they know everything. If you then either dont hand in the receipt or you forget to take the items with you, you'll get a $5,000 fine" or something like that lol

Do you know if that's really the case? Seems a bit harsh to me. Think about the poor old grand-mother that forgot to check in her bottle of rum or her cuddly koala toy bought duty free ^^

 

[NM]

These days with the TRS (Tourist Refund Scheme), its generally not best value to purchase from "Duty Free" stores. Find the product you want at a good price (a sale, or negotiate/bargain) pay the "GST included" price and take the product and receipt with you to the airport for a GST refund when you depart. There are some rules for using TRS, such as you must have a single receipt for purchases totaling over $300 and must present the good at the airport when departing within 30 days of purchase. Presentation can be before check-in where you can have the goods verified and then check them in with your checked bags and then collect the GST refund at the TRS desk after immigration processing.

 

[medhead]

As NM said claiming your refund direct is the best value. But what you're describing sounds like the old duty free system, an ex worked in duty free shops under that system. Basically they can catch you for not exporting the goods. First you need to present a ticket and passport to buy under that system. They also had multiple docket copies. One lot with the goods, one retained by the shop and one sent to customs. When you hand in the docket customs match it with the one forwarded from the shop. They then take action on all the non matched dockets that they are holding.


Sent from the Throne

 

[SeatBackForward]

Aren't there some rules around the TRS that the goods can't be brought back into Aus too? In reality I doubt its policed but the rules on duty free is supposed to be for goods leaving Aus.

Sent from my HTC Desire using AustFreqFly

 

[medhead]

Aren't there some rules around the TRS that the goods can't be brought back into Aus too? In reality I doubt its policed but the rules on duty free is supposed to be for goods leaving Aus.

Sent from my HTC Desire using AustFreqFly

No there are no such rules. You can bring anything back subject to the $900 per person tax free limit. If you exceed that amount you have to pay GST on all your goods.


Sent from the Throne

 

[drewbles]

And if you do purchase and take with you (Duty Free, not the TRS) and 'forget' it, yes, they do know. When you purchase, they fill in a form in at least triplicate. A copy stays with the store, a copy goes in a pouch on the bag, and another goes to customs. When you go through, they take that copy to match up with their records. No match, you will be fined.

If you genuinely forget, there are provisions for this. You are required to take the goods back to the DF store, and they will refund you the full purchase price, and advise customs. I've seen this happen in the past. It's quite painless, but of course, you don't get the goods you wanted.

DF is not what it used to be. As others above have mentioned, the TRS is definitely better, if you can negotiate a good deal with a retailer and take it out with you.

 

[Simo]

IMHO duty free is now over rated for many products.

I purchased my partner some perfume and found out that it was cheaper at chemist warehouse and by a big difference.

But I came home with a present for her and she was happy so it didn't matter.