Is this a stupid smoking law?

Question

i want to grow my own tobacco plants to make handrolling tobacco

buying seeds is ok

growing the plants is ok

but as soon as i shred the leaves into tobacco, i need to pay excise and duty(tax) ive just read it on a website

how will they know ime growing my own?

Answer 1

I don't believe your information is correct. I think the tax situation would only arise if you were to sell your tobacco. I brew my own beer. There is no tax to pay at any stage. If I were to sell it , even at a private party I would be liable for tax. I think it would be the same in your circumstances. By the way, smoking is bad for you.

Answer 2

Well they wouldn't know, unless of course you decided to tell them in which case you really would be a muppet! lol :)

Answer 3

As a practical matter, it's not illegal to grow tobacco... and it isn't illegal to possess the leaves... and it since you have to age cigarette tobacco for a period of several years (usually 5-6 years ) before it is mellow enough to smoke, no one is going to remember or care that you grew some tobacco a while back.  Just don't try to sell it and no one will have any reason to hassle you.

P.S. the aging process is what makes growing your own not so worthwhile to most people.... but if you are willing to wait... or don't mind a little harsh smoke then more power to you.

Gotta love your industriousness man.

Answer 4

If i were you I would start by not advertising my intentions ot the World on the World Wide Web.  

Answer 5

You have just told  them. A simple rule in life "butty", if you want to keep a secret. Don't tell anybody !! As a long time smoker my self, I have tried growing my own, it was vile. If i were you i would not worry about tax. By the way; I'm about to have a few cans of ale and a condor moment. Have a bit of bacca, if you fancy some!!

Answer 6

That depends how honest you are.  If you don't pay the duty, you'll probably get away with it.  If you get caught, they probably won't prosecute if you're prepared to pay a token amount of duty.

But if you get caught and the lady from HMRC is having PMT and has just had an argument with her boss, expect to go down for 2 years.

Answer 7

Unless you got a field of tabacco plants, and your planning to sell all that tabacco (loose tabacco, cigarettes, etc) they really won't care. If your growing a few tabacco plants for your self the government shouldn't care your supposed to still pay the tax but I wouldn't. It's not a "big" thing to worry about. A fact you might want to know, I was going to grow tabacco a while ago, I looked up the process of harvesting and curing it, I believe they said the average sucessful curing time is between 1-2 years, thought you might want to know that before you start growing it. In my opinion I think of it like, take a cannabis plant for example (the plant itself is illegal) say your growing one plant, for personal use the rule is...... Its not illegal if you don't get caught. lol.

Basically all Im saying is they won't bother with you anyway unless your planning to sell it for whatever reason then they can get you on evading taxes.

Answer 8

It's a stupid law, many of our governments laws are stupid like if I want to give you a gift of over 24,000 dollars in a year I have to pay a tax on it. What business is it of the governments what I do with my money taht I already paid taxes on when I earned it? It's none of their business, or at least it shoudln't be.

Your situatio is similar to alcohol. Techinically you need to get a permit and pay taxes to make alcohol but many people brew beer or wine at home and don't pay taxes or get permits to do so.

The other funny tax situation I saw was in the Illinois tax packet there is a page for you to fill out if you bought cigarrettes out of state your supposed to pay the difference between the Indiana tax and Illionois tax which is higher. There is no way the government could ever find out plus that's their own fault for maaking taxes so high if people choose to leave the state to buy smokes. The government sucks.

Answer 9

That.... and 1000000 other laws may exist, but are completely unenforcible.

As long as you aren't going to try selling it (which would be unfair competition with existing tobacco companies) then do what makes you happy.

Answer 10

You have touched on an important violation of human rights - the right to grow and eat/smoke your own produce. Just stick one up to them.

Answer 11

they won't know unless they come to your house or you tell someone who tells the world. but in all seriousness no smoking law is stupid-they're there for a reason, because you're killing yourself and people close to you

Answer 12

They seem to find out when people are growing cannabis. I don't know what conditions are required for growing tobacco plants but if they are the same, then they will use infra red cameras.

Answer 13

don,t mention it on here.---ssssshhhhhh

Answer 14

How do you think they will 'know' you are growing your own? Do they have some kind of detector like the TV licensing people? And do they have enough manpower to detect someone growing their own for themselves on a small scale? And how much would the duty be? Would it be worth their while chasing you anyway?

But who said the law had to make sense?  

Answer 15

the tax is only for large scale production or commercial production,not for personal use so its ok to grow it for u