Remain voters will be able to drown their sorrows after the EU Referendum result with the expected return of Duty Free shopping after Brexit .
Back in 1999, outlets in duty free zones in airports, on planes and in train stations and ports were banned from selling wine , spirits, beer , cigarettes and perfume free from taxes for travellers moving between EU countries.
Since then Brits have only allowed to buy the cheaper goods if your final destination is outside of the EU.
There has been the odd exception - for example, the Canary Islands are within the EU but outside the EU tax union and have continued duty-free sales for ALL travellers - but many Brits have missed the "good old days" of being able to make the most of their Duty Free allowance.
The up side of the ban was that Brits have been allowed to bring home a virtually unlimited amount of duty paid goods from EU countries - so Brexit means it's wave goodbye to the French booze cruise where you load up your car to the brim with 'biere et vin'.
But with Brexit most commentators expect that the UK will return to how it used to be - and travelling Brits will have to adhere to the rules that apply to all non-EU countries.
We could therefore expect in future to have a duty free allowance of:
- 200 cigarettes or 250g of tobacco
- 16 litres of beer
- Four litres of wine
- One litre of spirits stronger than 22% or two litres of port or sparkling wine
Other goods including souvenirs up to the value of £390.
Sadly, that doesn't necessarily mean that Brits will be better off however.
For example, under current rules being part of the EU, duty on wine in France is just 23p per 750ml - compared with £2.08 in the UK - so if in the future you are limited to bringing just four litres back instead of an unlimited amount, you might be disappointed or out of pocket, or both.
The European Travel Retail Confederation confirmed today - after the vote - it intends to explore specific issues relating to Duty Free in coming months.
It said: "The UK finds itself in an unprecedented situation: no country the size of the UK or with its economic weight has ever left the EU.
“It is impossible to predict exactly what will happen over the coming days and months, and what this means for the duty-free and travel retail channels.
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"There are clearly very specific issues surrounding duty free and travel retail which we need to explore fully with both the UK and EU governments in the coming months.”
And in other good news, you should probably be able to get VAT back under Brexit .
That is to say, any traveller living in a country outside the EU VAT area is entitled to shop tax-free in the EU. You pay the VAT on goods in the shop in the usual way - and can then request a refund when exporting the goods.
To qualify you have to:
- Have residency in a non-EU country
- Be staying in the EU for less than six months (e.g. a two-week holiday)
- Buy the goods within three months of leaving your leaving
- Get a form from the shop where you make the purchase
- Be using the goods for personal use
- Present the form at customs when leaving the EU to be stamped
The stamped form can then be sent back to the retailers- or their agents - for a refund.
But it's not all potentially good news for drinkers.
The cost of all imported goods goes up if the value of the pound falls - which happened immediately this morning after the result of the referendum was known, when it hit its lowest level since 1985. Wine therefore is already more expensive to import than it was 24 hours ago.
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Brits drink more than 354m litres of EU-produced wine each year - and that amount has dropped in recent years as consumers' preferences have switched to bottles from places like Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. But again the fall in the value of the £ has made those more expensive to drink tonight.
The cost of beer in bars, pubs and restaurants was already tipped to rise before the vote.
When George Osborne released his draft Brexit budget he stated there was a chance that alcohol duty rate will go up by 5% - meaning the customer would likely pay more for beer. More establishments could be in danger of going out of business in what is already a stressed industry.
Beer also uses a lot of European ingredients - and hops and malt from the continent are really important at the moment due to a global hop shortage - which the UK might have to pay more for in future without free trade.
Also bars, pubs and restaurants attract a lot of transient workers from abroad and whether the loss of freedom of movement could push up the price of this labour in future is speculation - but it is a real fear in some quarters.
