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Duty Free allowance

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Soulie:
Hi,

Does anyone know if the duty free allowance has changed on cigarettes.  I have just been walking the dogs and someone up the field told me a chap came back from Greece last week and had his allowance taken off him as he was only allowed to bring 800 cigarettes back?  Dont seem right to me and I havent heard anything.

Does anyone know anything please?

Thanks
Cheryl

Caz:
cigarettes brought into the uk must be for your own consumption or a gift, they must not be for resale, the guideline is 800 cigarettes, more and they would not be classed for your consumption and confiscated. The person was most likely bringing in a large quantity. We understand this is something customs are clamping down on due to people abusing the free allowance purely for resale purposes.

tonyco1:
Yes - this now seems to be the Norm!!
One of our friends does a Med cruise from Southampton, that calls into Gibraltar  - - - once a year.
He fills a suitcase with cigarettes - enough to last him a year and has no trouble bringing them in back home.
Gib is duty free!

Jimbo:
This is a guideline only. Under EU law you are entitled to bring back for personal use as many cigarettes as you can carry.

The guidelines say that you may be asked questions if you have more than 800. It was 3,200 until November. The Labour government raised it from 800 because of the chaos it was causing at ports and airports, and now this remarkably stupid government has opted for another bout of chaos.

We brought back 3,600 cigarettes. If I had been challenged and had cigarettes confiscated I would have taken HRMC to court and won. They are NOT duty free. VAT and Duty has been paid in Greece, and the only challenge that they have is that you are going to flog them in your local market. I'd like to see them prove that! They cannot charge extra duty without being hauled up before the European Commission.

Basically it's yet another pathetic money-raising effort by a collection of Etonian bullies who seem to think that "fag" means something you can treat as you want. Well, they can't. They are in breach of the law, not you.

Generally speaking, I suspect that they're more interested in cars and vans coming in on ferries, and package flights to and from Corfu are an unlikely route for smugglers.

Stand up for your rights. Cough a lot and sing Jerusalem as you go through Customs. Preferably bring Greek cigarettes like Assos and GR - on the grounds that (a) you support the Greek economy, and (b) nobody in their right mind would try to sell a carrier bag of those at a car boot sale.

tonyco1:

--- Quote from: Jimbo on July 30, 2012, 02:01:36 AM ---This is a guideline only. Under EU law you are entitled to bring back for personal use as many cigarettes as you can carry.
The guidelines say that you - - - - - - - - - - - - etc....etc.........
....... Cough a lot and sing Jerusalem as you go through Customs.
Preferably bring Greek cigarettes like Assos and GR - on the grounds that (a) you support the Greek economy, and (b) nobody in their right mind would try to sell a carrier bag of those at a car boot sale.


--- End quote ---
Nobody in their right mind would try to smoke them!!  LOL
(Sorry Jim - I couldn't resist it!!).

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