Hi and welcome to HT!

As you were entering Germany, regardless of whether you were in transit to the UK, you would have had to adhere to the allowances for the German equivalent of our Revenue and Customs which appear to be 200.

luci

Hi luci,

Thanks for your reply. I was not aware of this at all.

Was it legal for them to confescate this and still tax us though?

I heard and read somewhere that from 2008 cigaretts brought from Czech should be the same as from all the other EU countries.

I just don't trust them

I have no idea about the German Revenue and Customs. The allowance may be the same as for the rest of the EU, apart from 8 of the new member countries who only have a 200 allowance, but that would only be if you are importing it directly into the UK by air, not via other countries.

luci

Thanks for the info I am also planning to go there and I also smoke so I need to be careful now

OK quick question
If you are only allowed 200 cigs per person I'm assuming then that the uk is classed as a non EU destination
Reason I ask is if you go onto the Prague airport site and then click on the duty free shop and scroll to the cigarette section it stated that it is forbidden to buy cigs if travelling to an EU destination.
Check it out
http://travel-value.cz/product/listing/type/1/subtype/10/view/bytype/offset/10/

Hi,

Apparently Germans have their own "kind of rules". I did a lot of research inlcuding contacting German authorities and we are actually allowed 800 cigarettes and if we have more, we should have been questioned where we got them from and reassure them that it is for our own use - and none of this happened. No one is able to tell us yet whether they acted legally or not.

I have put an official complaint through my local MEP and awaiting some answers so fingers cross
Just had a quick look on the site and these cigarettes are Duty Free (judging by the price) and in this case you can't buy them if you are travelling within the EU or arriving at Prague airport.

so where can you buy the 200 cigs you are allowed to bring back....tobacconists are very few and far between in Prague....I remember looking last time and couldn't find anywhere selling cartons....I don't smoke myself so wasn't that bothered but someone has asked us to bring some back when we go next

You can get them at the airport when you are leaving the Czech Republic - they sell them in cartons only. If you are travelling within the EU, you are not eligible for DUTY FREE and have to pay the full price including tax. There are usually 2 prices for customers - lower price for people travelling ouside the EU and full price for people travelling within the EU.

In Prague city you can normally get them in street shops called "Trafika" - there are loads of them on Vaclavske Namesti (Venceslav Square -well known destination) they are usually very pleased as it is good business for them

ooo right I think I know where that is it's at the top end near the shoe shop

Hello, just came back from holiday in Prague, bought 21 cartons of cigarettes (it's 2 of us) and they were confiscated in Germany (a loss of £600) + we were asked to pay tax for the confiscated cigarettes (??? ) of 380 euros and a fine of 250 euros on top of that. All in all, if we pay the fines as well, we would have lost over a £1000 - how ridiculous, and that is after we checked on the UK customs website that we are allowed to bring those cigarettes in the UK. If Lujziana reads this, please contact us as a similar thing happened to you, we would appreciate any advice as we just feel we were robbed by German government.

Hi, firtly I am very sorry to hear that! Exactly the same has happened to us. Since then I have been in contact with Brussell's office and at the same time I contacted my local MEP for help. After nearly 7 months I finally got a reply from German Authorities, basically denying every accusation/issue we raised and we were simply called liars. We were also told to pay the outstanding balance in full (including late payment charges) or they would send international debt collectors and confiscate all of our staff (up to the owed value). At this point I have given up as my local MEP said that there is nothing more they can do as it has nothing to do with political issue anymore and suggested for us to get a lowyer. This we can't really afford so this is not an option fo us.
How did they treat you there? Did they speak English to you and explained what is happening at the time? Because they let us sign a document which was written in a very poor English, so we did not understand its sense and asked what it is for, we simply got a reply that it is good for us. But as I found out 2 months ago - by doing this we have both given up the right for interpreter (German Authorities actually said we apparantelly refused this).

I'm sad to read about the problems that you all seem to have had with German authorities and losing your ciggs.It seems to me that they change the rules to suit themselves.About 4 years ago I crossed the Polish/German border in the early hours (silly move)and got stopped with 1200 ciggs onboard.I then had to pay duty of about £10.00 a carton and was let through with the lot.This year I was stopped at dover with 50 cartons-I smoke 60 a day and go to Poland every 6 months or so to buy more-and after getting stopped explained that they were purely going to be smoked by me-not for re-selling-and was allowed through when they accepted that this was the case.For the last 15 years I've smoked Polish bought ciggs and saved around £60,000 at todays prices as they are only 22% the price of English ones.Although the choice of western brands is a little limited if you smoke Marlboro it's well woth going there to buy especailly as since the begining of this year there is no limit on how many you can bring as Poland is now no longer considered to be a "new member of Europe" .A cheap Ryanair flight with all taxes,booked well in advance,costs about £40.00 and 16 cartons of ciggs is around £300 over in poland ,compared to £960 here in the UK,so it's a total no brainer to me as I can smoke for so much less by buying my ciggs over there and get a nice break away at the same time.If the Uk price was lower(reduce the tax chancellor) I would not bother going away to get them but all the while that there is so much difference in the price i will continue my twice yearly trips.