Tia Maria.....

silverfoxdude

thanx for the advice but i suppose its worth taking a chance it says on the site that if your cigs are held up by the post office for you to pay the duty then you can refuse delivery and they will send them again

rubadub_3

ManAtHome wrote:

It's also illegal and goods may be confiscated by Customs...

I don't think it is illegal. Rare wine and whiskey is openly sold on ebay. You simply have to pay the duty, vat and excise duty. In Ireland if it is marked as a gift you are exempt from the duty, but not excise duty.

https://www.free-brands.com have a great selection and some bottles may still be cheaper even if you are charged full whack. I am just wondering if it is worth the customs cost of administration to charge the duty on a bottle of 22% liquer. In Ireland (probably UK too) Duty is charged on % of the alcohol, rather than just the volume.

In Ireland it says items up to €22 and items marked as gifts up to €45 are exempt (except for alc, smokes, perfume). I know plenty of people who have had goods stated on the package at over this price who were not charged duty.

With the amount of online buying these days there must be massive amounts of items coming into countries overloading the post and customs people, there has to be a cut-off point where administration costs is more than the chargeable duty.

Free-brands send out each bottle individually. But 10 bottles arriving on the same day will raise eyebrows. One bottle every few weeks could easily slip through un-noticed.

ManAtHome

Fair do's if the contents are accurately described on Customs declarations, not if described as 'tractor parts' and/or 'gifts'. For the rare stuff on ebay, I'd expect duty costs to be comparatively low in relation to the overall price, doesn't work out the same on the normal stuff.

As I said above - more down to luck than legality (or perhaps staff cuts at C+E...).

jumpingjackd

Was able to buy litre of Mandarine Napoleon from https://www.free-brands.com (have looked all over for it, and think it is only available abroad). Great service......arrived in three days.

I also ordered 200 cigarettes from them and postie left a card this morning saying they are unable to deliver my package until i pay £39.10 duty.

Guess I wont be picking them up. Maybe I was just unlucky. There was no problem getting bottle delivered.

black-saturn

Iceland are selling faux Tia Maria (I think it's called Black Magic). You get a big bottle for £4. I also love Tia Maria and I can't tell any difference. Might be worth a try.