Customs Putting in Overtime at Dublin Airport
March 6, 2007 – 1:02 pm
Last year the government decided to start a highly visible campaign to get people to pay their duty when returning from lands far away. It seems with the incredibly weak dollar, record numbers are flocking to the US to buy their clothing, iPods, and other goods which cost a fortune here. I of course wouldn’t do such a thing as get my iPod for half price 
.
Anyway, I travel back and forth between Dublin Airport and JFK on a regular basis and I have never seen a Customs Officer even once. Well maybe I am telling a slight fib as once I saw one chatting up a Customer Service girl. I always figured that maybe the rows of scanning belts you just walk by didn’t swing into operation until later in the day. Obviously with the big budget advertising campaign the government put together, surely they checked the occasional bag for an evil pair of Jimmy Chou Shoes (I admit I have no idea what those actually are but I heard they are popular) or a dangerous iPod.
Well today the figures were released from Customs on the number stopped and those required to pay fines. The period was the extremely busy holiday season so get ready for some giant numbers. After all, according to the Governments own reports, the period from Nov 1st to Dec 31st is when most of you scammers of VAT do your evil work.
So here they are, presented in alphabetical order for clear viewing:
People Declaring Goods and Paying Duty/VAT voluntarily: 24
People Stopped, Found to not have declared, and charge Duty/VAT: 4
I decided against the pie chart to make it easier to understand. 28 people paid VAT!!! That is a crackdown!! It seems it cost the Government a couple of million to claw back around €100
Makes you wonder