When I wrote about the latest hike in tobacco duty in March it provoked a heated discussion about cross-Channel shopping.
I later returned to the subject here: Government cuts tobacco guidelines.
Yesterday we received an email that is worth sharing because it highlights a problem that many people may encounter:
A friend recently drove to Belgium with three colleagues on one of their twice yearly visits to purchase hand rolling tobacco. Nothing was said on his way out of the country and it was not until they returned with their prescribed three kilos that they learnt that the restrictions on the amount of cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco had been reduced.
HMRC asked them a lot of questions, said they would allow them to pass this time but in future the limit had been reduced to one kilo each although HMRC did add that this was only a guideline.
Imagine my friend's horror when he returned home and checked out the HMRC website and found so much misinformation that he is very confused.
Imagine reading on one page that there are not any restrictions on what you can bring into the country as long as it is for personal use. Then on the next page the list of what you can bring through customs according to HMRC – just 800 cigarettes (pre 1/10/2011 = 3200) or one kilo of hand rolling tobacco (was three kilos). There is no change on the amount of alcohol you can bring in (guidelines).
Continuing to read he found that if you try to bring in more than the guidelines and cannot give satisfactory answers to questions such as who is this for, how often do you go abroad etc you are liable to confiscation of the tobacco/cigarettes and guess what – your car/vehicle taken as well. I thought this had been resolved in a court case back in 2004.
Is it my imagination or are the government targeting smokers yet again?
The email was timely because on Saturday The Times published an article headlined 'How to keep hold of your duty-frees'.
The article is behind The Times' paywall but it includes a quote from Nothing-2-Declare (who posts about it here) and is worth reading.