Why is Ireland No but Spain is Yes?, to duty free cigarettes.?

Question

I have only just started travelling in Europe so not sure of the answer.

Just wondering why I could bring back duty free cigarettes from Spain but not from Ireland into the UK when we are all in the EU.

I went to Spain and came back on 23/04/2008 and at Barcelona airport duty free shops I was allowed to bring back 3200 cigarettes into the UK which I did.

When to Ireland and came back on 02/06/2008 and at Shannon airport duty free I wasn’t allowed to bring any cigarettes back into the UK.

Interesting a pack of 200 cigarettes at both Barcelona and Shannon airport duty free were both 28 euros each.

Why can I buy duty free cigarettes from Spain but not from Ireland to bring back to the UK?

Answer 1

The EU has a Community Customs Territory.

When you travel from one member country to the other you have cannot buy duty free products (you can by products in the "duty free" shops, but you will pay local tax on them, this is why airport shops ask to see you boarding card, to see you destination and know whether to charge you tax or not).

With in the community customs territory, you can only import alcohol & tabacco if it is for personal use. The guidlines state that more than 3200 cigarettes are suspicious, so it is not recomended to try and import more.

In the EU only the Canary Islands, Gibraltar, the Channel Islands and Cyprus have opted out of the community customs territory, so products bought from airports in these places are duty free, and you will pay the cheaper tax free price.

However, I don´t understand why you were not allowed to buy cigarettes in Ireland. If you were traveling to the UK, of another EU country there is no reason for this.

Answer 2

in 1922 Ireland was given Independence and one condition was freedom of travel between countries and I suppose that this has something to do with this that you are not really leaving a zone of duty free.

Answer 3

The cigarettes you bought in Spain were not duty free but subject to Spannish tax.  It's just that the spannish tax is much lower than UK tax so the cigarretes are cheaper there.

Answer 4

The simple answer is that you are not allowed to bring duty free cigarettes from Spain to the UK.

As already pointed out, the price in Spain included local taxes. The price in Shannon was the duty free price, available to you if you were travelling outside EU.

You could have bought cigarettes in Shannon at the local Irish price. This would have cost you about 11 hundred euro.