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Comment by jordemort | Hacker News Reader

Assuming you can find someone who wants to buy a one-off carton of foreign smokes for full price from some stranger

When I was younger - and the limit for transporting 10 packs of cigarettes were higher - it was considered impolite to not tell your friends who smoked, when you were making a trip across the border. Even families of non-smokers regularly imported great amounts of cigarettes for their friends and relatives who smoked.

Not "impolite", but when we had a company weekend in the bordering Czech republic there were definitely people importing 10x10 packs by asking non-smokers to hold some for the border crossing.

I assume it's for people who smoke.

Would reselling duty-free fags even be legal? Because it sure doesn't feel legal.

It's illegal in a number of countries. In the Netherlands you may only import fags for personal use; reselling is explicitly prohibited. The amount of fags imported is limited too — tools like this one pretty much have to assume the user will illegally import their cigarettes. For the UK any amount over 200 cigarettes means VAT will have to be paid.

The 200 cigarette limit is quite new. I believe that until recently there was no limit as long as it was for personal use.

Anyway I’ve never noticed anyone declaring their cigarettes at customs so I think it just one of those rules that never gets enforced.

I saw it enforced on the show Border Patrol.

The limit for duty-free has existed for a long time (in 2002 I bought a a 5x10x20 pack on my way out of the country, and was warned I wouldn't be able to bring it back. This is quite a distinct memory as I remember quite proudly telling them I wasn't coming back!)

I believe what's been lost is the "booze cruise" intra-EU option (where tax has been paid elsewhere in the EU) where the limit is "for personal use", an incredibly vague limit where the onus is on you to convince customs that you have no intent to sell.

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