# is there huge salary and cost of living difference between UK metropolitan areas and elsewhere? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 11, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-huge-salary-and-cost-of-living-difference-between-uk-metropolitan-areas-and-elsewhere/578006 "2011-04-11T20:51:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-huge-salary-and-cost-of-living-difference-between-uk-metropolitan-areas-and-elsewhere/578006/41 "2011-04-13T06:51:58Z")
> [@code\_grey](#): > > **jjimm** , Latvia is in the EU too. If I were to open a mail order company in Latvia and then send parcels to UK, let’s say to the friends of **Huerta88** , would the customs due paid on the contents plus the presumably low Latvian price plus cheap shipping by sea be approximately equal to the price that people pay in stores in the UK? > > Or am I incorrect in assuming that Latvian prices are similar to the “real” or, for simplicity, let’s say to the Chinese prices? Is the tariff wall around poor new entrants to the EU the same as it is around England, France and other rich countries? There is, to my knowledge, no tariff wall. AFAIK, there would not be any customs payment required, unless the goods were on a restricted list - things like food, alcohol, tobacco, livestock, etc. As long as the VAT is paid in the EU country of origin, then you can send your goods at will. [Cite](http://www.bizhelp24.com/paperwork/export-import/export-and-import-regulations-and-taxes.html): > [@The British Government](#): > > If you are importing or exporting from within the EU, then a customs declaration is not usually necessary. Although if you are VAT registered, and your EU imports or exports exceed a set amount (currently £233,000 a year) you will need to fill in a supplementary declaration form each month. As to whether it would be cheaper, in some cases possibly yes. Why aren’t people doing it like crazy at the moment? Maybe they are, through eBay. Or maybe Latvia doesn’t make anything suitable for export apart from restricted items, or maybe the price differential isn’t attractive enough, or the postage too high. E.g. there are plenty of booze cruises etc. from Dover in England to Calais in France, where Brits take a van over and fill it to the brim with wine and cigarettes. Provided it is “for personal use only” then you’re completely OK. Similarly there are hypermarkets on the Germany/Denmark border where people from southern Denmark scoot over and do their grocery shopping. I’m sure there are dozens of other places where this is the case. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-huge-salary-and-cost-of-living-difference-between-uk-metropolitan-areas-and-elsewhere/578006/42 "2011-04-13T06:56:09Z")
I will add that in the boomtimes in Ireland, I did hear of people flying to NYC to go shopping in the big outlet malls. I don’t know if they really did save money or if they were just conning themselves (weirdly at the time, people from Iceland would fly to Dublin to do the same thing). ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-huge-salary-and-cost-of-living-difference-between-uk-metropolitan-areas-and-elsewhere/578006/43 "2011-04-13T10:58:57Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > This.Officially, we’re not allowed to bring any new goods into the country from outside the EU worth more than \*\*some insanely low amount, like £30. \*\*In practice, Customs have enough to worry about than stop people who’ve just bought an X Box in NYC. Via the mail, there is some other branch of Customs involved who are a bunch of wankes. That said, I’ve bought lots of expensive electronics from Hong Kong with no worries, so maybe some countries are more paranoid/more targeted than others when shipping overseas. It’s not really to do with the Post Office though. > [@HM Revenue & customs](#): > > You can bring in other goods worth up to £390 without having to pay tax and/or duty. From [here](http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/arriving/arrivingnoneu.htm). I always stock up on clothes and especially hiking shoes/boots when I go back to the US. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-huge-salary-and-cost-of-living-difference-between-uk-metropolitan-areas-and-elsewhere/578006/44 "2011-04-13T11:26:22Z")
> [@kferr](#): > > From [here](http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/arriving/arrivingnoneu.htm). > > I always stock up on clothes and especially hiking shoes/boots when I go back to the US. Just a shame you can’t fill up a few suitcases with petrol and fly them home. 😛 (Note for Americans, petrol here is currently about £1.36 a litre, that’s just shy of $8.50 per US gallon - and more in London.) ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-huge-salary-and-cost-of-living-difference-between-uk-metropolitan-areas-and-elsewhere/578006/45 "2011-04-13T11:34:28Z")
> [@kferr](#): > > From [here](http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/arriving/arrivingnoneu.htm). Thanks for updating me - I’m clearly about 25 years out of date. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-huge-salary-and-cost-of-living-difference-between-uk-metropolitan-areas-and-elsewhere/578006/46 "2011-04-13T11:47:46Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > I will add that in the boomtimes in Ireland, I did hear of people flying to NYC to go shopping in the big outlet malls. I don’t know if they really did save money or if they were just conning themselves (weirdly at the time, people from Iceland would fly to Dublin to do the same thing). There was a period where the flights to NYC were cheap and the exchange rate was particularly good, and a lot of Brits did fly over to NYC for a shopping weekend. Nowadays the flights are about 4x what they were then, the exchange rate has come down and disposable income is shrinking rapidly, so no one does that anymore. Funnily enough, the town in Pennsylvania where I grew up had loads of outlet stores and we used to get busloads of New Yorkers coming down to shop. The grass is always greener etc. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-huge-salary-and-cost-of-living-difference-between-uk-metropolitan-areas-and-elsewhere/578006/47 "2011-04-13T12:46:29Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > I’m sure there are dozens of other places where this is the case. For instance Helsingborg, Sweden / Helsingør , Denmark. The latter town is full of booze shops to serve the Swedes who take the short ferry trip across the Øresund to take advantage of the (relatively) cheaper alcohol prices in Denmark. ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-huge-salary-and-cost-of-living-difference-between-uk-metropolitan-areas-and-elsewhere/578006/48 "2011-04-13T12:49:09Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > I will add that in the boomtimes in Ireland, I did hear of people flying to NYC to go shopping in the big outlet malls. I don’t know if they really did save money or if they were just conning themselves (weirdly at the time, people from Iceland would fly to Dublin to do the same thing). This was well over 10 years ago, but I presented at the Scandinavian DB2 User’s Group conference in Dublin. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-huge-salary-and-cost-of-living-difference-between-uk-metropolitan-areas-and-elsewhere/578006/49 "2011-04-13T12:56:57Z")
> [@Rayne\_Man](#): > > For instance Helsingborg, Sweden / Helsingør , Denmark. The latter town is full of booze shops to serve the Swedes who take the short ferry trip across the Øresund to take advantage of the (relatively) cheaper alcohol prices in Denmark. That’s amazing - grass is always greener. At Christmas I drove from Sønderborg, DK to Flensburg, DE, where I got 60 x 1/2 litre bottles of Staropramen for less than €30. :eek: Poor Swedes! ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-huge-salary-and-cost-of-living-difference-between-uk-metropolitan-areas-and-elsewhere/578006/50 "2011-04-13T13:03:21Z")
Don’t forget that in Sweden wines and spirits can only be bought from government run shops. Beer is available in supermarkets, but only to a maximum strength of 3.5%. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-huge-salary-and-cost-of-living-difference-between-uk-metropolitan-areas-and-elsewhere/578006/51 "2011-04-13T13:14:15Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > …Funnily enough, the town in Pennsylvania where I grew up had loads of outlet stores and we used to get busloads of New Yorkers coming down to shop. The grass is always greener etc. King of Prussia, Pa., perchance? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-huge-salary-and-cost-of-living-difference-between-uk-metropolitan-areas-and-elsewhere/578006/52 "2011-04-13T13:30:12Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > King of Prussia, Pa., perchance? Reading, home of the Vanity Fair outlets (amongst others). Lee blue jeans for $8, baby! ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-huge-salary-and-cost-of-living-difference-between-uk-metropolitan-areas-and-elsewhere/578006/53 "2011-04-13T14:16:43Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > There was a period where the flights to NYC were cheap and the exchange rate was particularly good, and a lot of Brits did fly over to NYC for a shopping weekend. Nowadays the flights are about 4x what they were then, the exchange rate has come down and disposable income is shrinking rapidly, so no one does that anymore. New York is also notable for its fashion outlets. I also knew a few people who would go to NY to buy high-end designer goods, though obviously they wanted to go to New York anyway; they basically wanted to have a holiday, pretend to be on Sex and the City and save a little money via tax-free shopping. But whole families going to Florida just to buy clothes? Nah, no way. Even the cheapest out-of-season package holiday would be a thousand quid for a family of four. A suitcase each full of clothes (given that airline costs would add up for extra suitcases) is not going to make that back, nowhere near. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-huge-salary-and-cost-of-living-difference-between-uk-metropolitan-areas-and-elsewhere/578006/54 "2011-04-13T20:48:24Z")
I’m tired and my brain’s fried, so I can’t quite tie this into the earlier question on mail order and tariffs, but playing with import/export rules is very popular when it comes to the (non-EU) tax havens of Europe. Amazon UK uses a locally registered company in the Channel Islands, Indigo Starfish, to send many of its games, CDs and DVDs to fulfil mainland UK orders. VAT is not payable on items sent from outside the EU (like the Channel Islands) under £18 in value, so Indigo Starfish can undercut their mainland competitors and still save (considering VAT is 20%). > **[Offshore companies that holed HMV below the waterline](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/jan/19/offshore-companies-holed-hmv)** > > VAT-exempt suppliers in the Channel Islands have mounted a significant challenge to the big high-street CD and DVD retailers. Who are the entrepreneurs behind the the tax-free retailers? > **[VAT-free imports from the Channel Islands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-Added-Tax-free_imports_from_the_Channel_Islands)** > > VAT-free imports from the Channel Islands to the United Kingdom took place for a few years during the early 21st century as a result of low-value consignment relief (LVCR). This is a tax relief that applies to low-valued imports to the European Union, exempting them from value-added tax (VAT). Although the UK was a part of the EU from 1973 until Brexit in 2020, the Channel Islands (two Crown Dependencies) were not and, unlike the UK, they did not charge VAT on purchases. The UK government appli... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-huge-salary-and-cost-of-living-difference-between-uk-metropolitan-areas-and-elsewhere/578006.md?page=2)