Alcohol and Cigs allowances

[CuriousCruiser66]

Hi, Hope someone can help please, does anyone have any idea of how much booze and ciggies we can bring back into Southampton from a 14 night cruise in the Med and an 11 Nighter to Spain and the Canary Islands ?

 

I am VERY confused as have been told that there will be 2 allowances ...... 200 cigs per adult off the Cruise Ship as this is classed as America but up to 3200 from the ports in the Med as they are EU Countries and are therefore duty Paid in those countries........... same kind of thing for alcohol too ....

 

HELP PLEASE as my brain is hurting trying to figure it all out :confused:

[Missus Makkem]

Hi, Hope someone can help please, does anyone have any idea of how much booze and ciggies we can bring back into Southampton from a 14 night cruise in the Med and an 11 Nighter to Spain and the Canary Islands ?

 

I am VERY confused as have been told that there will be 2 allowances ...... 200 cigs per adult off the Cruise Ship as this is classed as America but up to 3200 from the ports in the Med as they are EU Countries and are therefore duty Paid in those countries........... same kind of thing for alcohol too ....

 

HELP PLEASE as my brain is hurting trying to figure it all out :confused:

sadly Canaries allocation is 200/ person & the customs officer are waiting in Southampton and taking them from U big time?

I you buy on the ship, the allowance is the same 200, but if you buy from a port in EU then much higher, you must keep your receipt to prove it

.No mixing of allowances

 

RCI are know posting these allowances in the Duty Free on board shops

[jocap]

Yes, your figures are right....3,200 cigs can be brought back from the EU (or 60 packets of tobacco).

200 cigs, or 5 pkts tobacco from anywhere else in the world, on ship or shore.

Canaries and Gibraltar are not part of the EU.

Southampton customs know where your ship has been.

Last year it took us 50 mins queuing to get through customs after a Gib stop.

This year- no Gib- walked straight through.....

Jo.

[John Bull]

Fact that the ship is American is irrelevant.

The goods sold on-board are duty-free, hence the lower allowance (200 cigs or 250g baccy, 1 ltr spirits etc.) Same applies to all cruise ships, including P&O etc. Same applies to countries outside the EU.

 

Just to confuse you even more, Gib and the Canaries and the Channel Islands are actually in the EU (don't believe me, folks? Check it out carefully), But as far as cigs & booze are concerned, they're outside the EU customs zone, so they're also subject to that lower allowance.

 

You can only bring back that lower allowance in total, you can't bring back 200 smokes from Gib & another 200 from Canaries & another 200 that you bought on the ship. But you can smoke as many duty-frees as you like during your cruise.

 

You can bring back the higher allowance (3200 cigs and 3kg baccy & a whole cabinful of booze) from an EU country such as mainland Spain or Balearics (but not Canaries), Portugal (including Madeira), Greece (including Crete), Italy etc, because EU duty has already been paid on it - though at a lower duty level than the UK, so they're cheaper than UK. I believe that Greece is now cheaper for smokes than Spain, but eastern europe is still by far the cheapest (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, etc, possibly the little Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania & Estonia).

The actual limit, set by the EU is "a reasonable quantity", HM Customs translate that into "a grilling if you bring back more than 3200 cigs etc"

 

Although EU-bought are more expensive than duty-free, the higher allowances means that the big savings are in the EU duty-paids, not the duty-frees.

We used to take holidays in Spain, and the savings compared to UK prices were greater than the entire cost of the holiday. Nowadays, we take a few days in eastern europe when we need to top-up.

 

As Jo's post, HM Customs at Southampton are hot on cigs & alcohol. If you're going to smuggle, stick to drugs, guns & illegal immigrants, which don't seem to concern them as much :rolleyes:

 

Cigs, baccy & spirits on which EU duty has been paid are labelled with a duty-paid sticker - so don't try to con them that your Canaries cigs were bought in Vigo cos they know damn-well that they weren't.

Only buy from genuine outlets & get receipts - there's loads of counterfeits out there being sold on street corners.

 

Bear in mind that the higher allowance EU -bought goods must be for your household's use, not for friends & neighbours. "Catering for a family wedding" is OK if you bring back a stack of booze.

Just hint that you're going to sell any of it, even at cost to friends, and it'll all be seized.

Half a dozen different ciggy brands will arouse their suspicions.

And they can be very persistent, to the point of rudeness, cos you're a much softer target than a professional drug-smuggler.

 

There's big legitimate savings to be made. So don't blow it by being greedy.

 

Chapter & verse at

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/arriving/index.htm

Have a happy read :D

 

JB :)

[CuriousCruiser66]

Thanks sooo much for helping me out I think I've now got my very excited brain around the facts and figures .... 17 days to gooooo !!! WOOP WOOP WOOP !!!:D:D