Reducing levels of Tobacco/cigarettes from EU

Bob_the_Saver

billstickers wrote: »

When we voted yes to join the common market it was for the removal of trade barriers and the free movement of all good between mamber states
What did we get?
A European parliament, Euro MP's straight bananna regulations and other expensive drivel
We did not vote for Customs or whatever they call themselves these days applying an arbritrary limit of 800 cigarettes even though they have been purchased legitimatlEy in the EEC WITH vat BEING PAID
So UK government policy is to hit the poorly paid joe public because HMRC are incapable of finding true smugglers - goods or people
But we only have ourselves to blame - we caused the banking crisis didn't we

Err, the limit from non EU countries is 200 would you prefer that? and put down that copy of the Daily Mail.
Smoking's bad for you anyway.

phatbear

billstickers wrote: »

We did not vote for Customs or whatever they call themselves these days applying an arbritrary limit of 800 cigarettes even though they have been purchased legitimatlEy in the EEC WITH vat BEING PAID

Its not a limit its a guideline

Mr_Wang wrote: »

Fking hate being British.

The guidelines apply regardless of your country of birth

Butts

What a ridiculous guideline - 800 cigarettes is about 40 days supply to a twenty a day smoker.

Perhaps a more sensible figure would be 7200 which is about a years supply.

If excise duties were harmonised throughout the EU as was proposed at it's inception this problem would not occur. As the UK is second highest after Ireland in the tax stakes this was always a remote possibility.

davehsug

I was surprised whilst in Salou a couple of weeks ago that there were no notices or anything in the tobacconists. I recall before, that there has usually been some sort of notice explaining the UK rules. Anyway, had no problems bringing back my 3200 via Manchester. I hope it's still the sme if we do the ferry trip to Santander around March time next year.

Voyager2002

horace wrote: »

Other imports from the E.U. are sold on for profit e.g German motor cars. Are those import numbers set at 800 or 1kg?

IMO it is HMG screwing those who wish to make a perfectly legal profit from the resale of tobacco duty paid imports.

h

No, such a profit is not legal. The rules are very clear: imports of tobacco from other EU countries are strictly for personal consumption.

Butts

Just a thought would it be an idea to actually go through the red zone on return to the UK.

If you were up front about the fact you had imported 5000 cigarettes for personal consumption would customs appreciate your honesty ?

breesey24

davehsug wrote: »

I was surprised whilst in Salou a couple of weeks ago that there were no notices or anything in the tobacconists. I recall before, that there has usually been some sort of notice explaining the UK rules. Anyway, had no problems bringing back my 3200 via Manchester. I hope it's still the sme if we do the ferry trip to Santander around March time next year.

Me too - went to Majorca 2 weeks ago and no mention of it there, in the duty free shops (UK & Spain) or on the plane. In fact had I not read about on here I wouldn't have known about it at all.

Thrifty-saver

booter wrote: »

Just spotted this:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/thelibrary/tobacco-products.pdf
So basically, travelling from an EU country, your "allowance" will be reduced. Kept that one quiet didn't they!

I've just returned from 5 weeks in Tunisia (so this didn't affect me at the moment), so didn't know about the change until last week. They certainly did keep it quiet, in the hopes of catching more people out. My son, also a smoker, didn't know about it either & I bet not many others will, although friends have just come back from Belgium & apparently it's well displayed over there. Would be interesting to hear if anyone has tried to argue the point with HMRC at either the ports or airports

Thrifty-saver

davehsug wrote: »

I was surprised whilst in Salou a couple of weeks ago that there were no notices or anything in the tobacconists. I recall before, that there has usually been some sort of notice explaining the UK rules. Anyway, had no problems bringing back my 3200 via Manchester. I hope it's still the sme if we do the ferry trip to Santander around March time next year.

You were lucky. Just returned from 5 weeks in Tunisia, so didn't know about any of this, & only brought back Non EU allowance of 200 anyway, but this accounts for why so many were being stopped at Gatwick. Seems they are taking it very seriously. Anyone gone through Gatwick recently from EU & not been stopped, I wonder?????

Bob_the_Saver

I think the customs limits in places like Singapore and Sri Lanka are the best way forward for tobacco.