ribeirasacra

Something I do not think a lot of us knew about.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/tr...ding-pass.html

"boarding passes should be requested from customers, and not demanded"

flanneruk

"WHSmith claimed that dual pricing – showing 20 per cent discounts for non-EU passengers – was a “practical impossibility”"

This isn't just an untruth (though of course they meant to say "showing 16.666 per cent discounts for non-EU passengers on VATable goods"). It's the absolute opposite of the truth.

WHSmith require boarding passes so its system can identify every individual VATable transaction to an extra-EU destination (even mastering the arcane rules for determining which jurisdiction Basle-Mulhouse is in), calculate the VAT due, aggregate it all then reclaim it. It takes 0.3 nanoseconds for its entire system to be reprogrammed to reduce customer receipts by the same amount.

Mind you, most of what WHS sells isn't VATable anyway.

For some mysterious reason, the Daily Taxdodgers' rant of the week (its proprietors don't pay any tax to anyone, but they think they're entitled to sponge off the rest of us) singles out UK retailers who DO pay tax - like their CEO's, who pay the taxes the DT ducks.

Yet no-one ever submits newspaper proprietors (the DT's are as shameless ion this respect as the Mail's owner) to the pillorying those papers dish out daily to real businesses.

Ackislander

I am willing to accept your point, but I don't understand it, rare, since you usually write very clearly.

Do you wish to elucidate?

ribeirasacra

flanner it has nothing to do with the DT. The story comes from the I.
http://i100.independent.co.uk/articl...ng--WJo1zSLLEl
No matter it is still something a lot on this forum will not know about. Saves you digging through your handbag, next time just refuse to show it.

rialtogrl

I don't remember having to show my boarding pass at Boots or any other non-duty free shop at Heathrow (and this article is about UK airports.) Duty-free shops, you always have to show it, and I am usually the one who gets in the line where all the people in front of me can't find theirs.

flpab

I hate digging it out. I always do it at the duty free but last time it was a huge pain for a newspaper. I can just say my husband is holding tickets?

annhig

I always assumed [wrongly it turned out] that it was to do with your duty free allowance though that hardly applies when you're buying a newspaper.

Next time, I will refuse and see what happens.