After countries go thru all the trouble of taxing imports, why then would they allow ppl to just buy whatever they want duty free? Why do these shops exist? What benefit do they serve? And why are they only at airports?
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I feel like it also saves time for the shopper since they don’t actually have to go through customs twice to just buy whatever it is they are buying from the other side of the border.
Cuts down on the work required for customs as well. It’s really just a win/win for everyone involved.
So I can appreciate just how much my Government ass rapes me on every packet of cigarettes when you get back to this absolute shit hole of a country(UK). Smiles.
To add to this question, what’s the function of duty free on arrival? Two places off the top of my head, Singapore and Iceland, are high tax countries that have duty free on arrival.
Not only at airports, there are duty free stores on both sides of the US/Canada land borders. I stock up on certain booze every year on the way back from visiting family.
I claimed back on ski boots I bought 4 months earlier when travelling through geneva airport, fill in a form and show them the goods
Basic tax and international law is why there are Duty Free stores. First assume that there is not an insane markup on the goods (not always true). Second, understand that some places, like an international Airport, or while at sea, where you are essentially in “no man’s land”, and thus you are making a purchase outside of all jurisdictions.
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They are not only at airports but also at physical border checkpoints between the US and Canada, not sure about Mexico, haven’t been in over 3 decades.
They are not only at airports, you also find them at ferries/harbours. I love to shop for booze at Bordershop Puttgarden for beer. Saves a truckload of money compared to buying beer in Sweden.
It would be really hard to tax small items so the rule was “don’t bother” so airports kinda gamed the rule by selling a bunch of small items to fit the requirements. Like they didn’t want to figure out if the can of soda you had needed to pay some complicated multi country tax of .01 cents so they just said “eh, just skip stuff like that”. So the airports made “stuff like that” stores right up to the edge of the law.
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