Customs Law

misters_2

Hi, I'm travelling to majorca in a couple of weeks, and i was just wondering if anyone can tell me how many Cigarettes and how much Alcohol I'm allowed to bring home to the UK?

Thanx in advance.

isasmurf

There are no limits from an EU country, providing you paid tax on them when you purchased them and it is for personal use.

However, Customs website says
YOU ARE PARTICULARLY LIKELY TO BE ASKED
QUESTIONS IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN:
3200 cigarettes, 200 cigars, 400 cigarillos, 3kg tobacco,
110 litres of beer, 90 litres of wine, 10 litres of spirits,
20 litres of fortified wine (such as port or sherry).

misters_2

Thanx isasmurf, one more thing i have never travelled to majorca before and a friend mentioned something about a tax you pay on arrival is this true, if so can you tell me the name of the tax?

Haggis_n_Neeps

No tax on arrival or departure (if there is, it is included in your airfare - assuming of course you are arriving by air).

If I remember right, there was a going to be a 'bed tax' a couple of years ago. However the hotels were to collect it from clients and pass it onto the government. The hotels were not happy about this and made such a fuss that it has either been abandoned or put on hold. Perhaps someone with more knowledge about this may post more about it in a while.

Wear walking shoes if arriving into Palma airport ... the baggage claim is a long long way from some of the aircraft arrival stands !!! (don't say we didn't warn you now)

pompeyrich

You are right Haggis, there was a tax imposed on a per person per night basis, it started from half a Euro, in 1 star accomodation and rose with the quality of the hotel etc. It was supposed to be an environment tax to repair the damage done by tourists and protect "special" areas. The result was that people were put off travelling to the Balaerics and presumably the local beauty was protected as planned. However the loss of income to the tourist trade led to the tax being abolished !!
Prices are "fixed" for tobacco products by the Spanish Government in the official Tabacs, identified by a brown sign with yellow writing. You can buy tobacco at other outlets but they are normally more expensive although they usually offer some gifts to encourage you to buy from them, a small bottle of spirit maybe with 400 cigs , so worth shopping around a bit before you buy.

misters_2

Thanx for the advice guys, it was really helpful. How much would you say the average carton of say 200 ciggs would be in these tobaconist?

pompeyrich

Cigs seem to be about 28 Euros for 200 at the moment, here is a link to a tabacconist in Benidorm but as said before the prices should be the same.
http://www.eurotabaco.net/Principal_en.htm

misters_2

Thanx pompeyrich, now could you point me to a good money converter i.e. Euros into pounds or vice versa?

Leylauk

Hi

I was just wondering if anyone knows the customs limits outside of the EU. Am in Hong Kong at the mo and someone mentioned that customs are particularly keen on people returning from HK therefore to go through the something to declare channel. However I have never been through the something to declare before!!! Should you declare ABSOLUTELY everything or hold back a little?

Any advice - greatly received!!!!!

misters_2

Leylauk wrote:

Hi

I was just wondering if anyone knows the customs limits outside of the EU. Am in Hong Kong at the mo and someone mentioned that customs are particularly keen on people returning from HK therefore to go through the something to declare channel. However I have never been through the something to declare before!!! Should you declare ABSOLUTELY everything or hold back a little?

Any advice - greatly received!!!!!

Dont know if this is what your looking for.
Click here

pompeyrich

Plenty of currency converters around do a search at Google!! The ones I looked at seemed to converting at an optimistic rate, probably the "Bank rate" which is better than the "tourist rate" which you get at the normal outlets. You will be lucky to get 1.40 Euros for a Pound, so 28 Euros, divided by 1.40 = £20. My local outlet is offering 1.387 so its actually £20:18p for 200 B&H.
As for travelling from Hong Kong all the info is here under travel http://www.hmce.gov.uk Couldnt possibly encourage anyone to bring in more than the limits, Hong Kong along with Turkey and the Canaries are known for their "bargain goods" so could be targeted by C&E, having said that I came back from Gran Canaria where cigs were £5:50 for 200, the other flight arrival was from Turkey, here we go, I thought but not a soul at the Customs Hall, it really is down to luck I guess.