By Josh Martin From Stuff NZ

You needn’t go to the warmer climates of the Cayman islands, Bermuda, Panama, or Monaco to get a lesson in tax evasion. You can do it all from your travel agent’s office or your computer chair – although I can’t promise the superyachts, models or fat (and secret) bank accounts that come along with the stereotype of the tax-dodging super-rich.

That’s largely because this exercise in tax dodging, sorry, “efficient tax planning”, is reserved for the Europe-bound traveller who wants to visit the United Kingdom, but not be stung by its relatively expensive air-passenger duty and departure taxes, which are applied to airfares departing from British airports.

London remains one of the world’s most expensive cities to visit, even if the Brexit vote has weakened the currency.

Try some “efficient tax planning” to avoid London’s high departure costs, and take the Eurostar from London to Paris, check out the sights such as the Louvre, then fly home from Paris.
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Try some “efficient tax planning” to avoid London’s high departure costs, and take the Eurostar from London to Paris, check out the sights such as the Louvre, then fly home from Paris.
Hotels, restaurants, transport, and attractions eat away at your budget until all that’s for lunch is found in a supermarket discount bin. One of the main reasons why airfares to the British capital remain, on average, more expensive than comparable flights to cities such as Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt, and Rome comes down to the taxes levied by the UK government on airfares.

Business-class flights are pinged the most (as much as £468 (NZ$913) for business-class, long-haul flights, and this will rise to £515 from April 2019). Long-haul outbound economy-class passengers pay £78 in departure tax, on top of air passenger duty and airport fees, but flights to the EU have just £13 government fees attached.

And these fees and taxes can’t be reduced or avoided if your airfares are a reward flight or paid for by loyalty points or air miles.

But why not give the UK tax coffers the cold shoulder (given its lined by billions in departure tax receipts each year, I think it’ll be OK). Instead of saying farewell to your Euro-tour at drizzly Heathrow, fly out from Amsterdam, Paris or Brussels. Each are frequent and seamless connections from London St Pancras station and given the Eurostar is not subject to taxes applied to flights, you can use the £78 for your train ticket, a bistro lunch and entrance to the Louvre and still come out with a few euros change.

And in case you’re thinking that booking a “multi-leg” or “open-jaw” airfare (a return airfare, but where you fly into and out of different cities) is more expensive than the traditional return Auckland-London-Auckland ticket, you will be happily mistaken.

Asian and Middle-Eastern carriers, in my experience, have been flexible and generous in allowing you to touch down in, say, Paris and fly out of Rome, for example.

In fact, I booked my family on that exact journey because to do the traditional Kiwi-parents-visiting-London route would have been £150 more – each. Yes, they shall still visit the UK, but due to the tiered nature of departure tax policy, when they fly from London Gatwick to Naples the levy is only £13, given their “end point” is within the EU.

The Eurostar service connects London to Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, and other smaller northern European cities. One-way tickets average around £30 if you book in advance, and avoid the usual business commuter times. It’s easy, you won’t pay extra for luggage, and you can be at your “replacement” departure city in under two-and-a-half hours.

The new direct Eurostar route to Amsterdam is seamless and means you can spend your final hours on the continent frolicking through tulips or cycling around canals. Brussels, meanwhile, has more frequent services departing London and has all the beer, waffles, moules frites, and chocolate you will need to console yourself with because your holiday is drawing to a close.

Naturally, you’re not going to plan a multi-week trip to Europe based on a savings of up to £78. That’s not really the point. But by acknowledging this higher-than-average and avoidable fee, you can make smarter decisions of a start and end point. For example, begin your Europe trip in the UK but avoid ending it here.

Even if you end up flying out of an EU city only to find that hotels and the train ticket there meant you spent a fraction more than you would have flying from London Heathrow, consider it money well spent, discovering a new destination or visiting an old friend, rather than lining the UK government coffers.

For more on this story go to: https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/themes/budget/106773635/dodgy-dealings-for-your-departure