Duty free concession changes!

[petejames]

Saw this today on changes to duty free concessions...

Tobacco

Up until 31 August 2012, if you are aged 18 years or over, you can bring 250 cigarettes or 250 grams of cigars or tobacco products duty-free into Australia with you. All tobacco products in accompanied baggage are included in this category, regardless of where or how they were purchased.

From 1 September 2012, the traveller tobacco concession reduces. If you are aged 18 years or over you can bring 50 cigarettes or 50 grams of cigars or tobacco products duty-free into Australia with you. All tobacco products in accompanied baggage are included in this category, regardless of how or where they were purchased.

That`s 200 grams LESS then we were previously allowed!

Sucks big time!

[chr0nic]

If you are aged 18 years or over you can bring 50 cigarettes or 50 grams of cigars or tobacco products duty-free into Australia with you.

It is nothing short of ludicrous... there are some pack-a-day smokers who carry more than 50 cigarettes for their day-to-day habit! By this rationale you could travel in \ out of Australia and be busted... just because you like to smoke a lot and carry them with you.

Duty free laws are getting out of hand.

[Fuzz]

That's barely a 5 pack of cigars. No more bringing a box of something special.

[Guest rob]

You can bring back a box of something special... Just declare and pay the duty.

Definitely sucks though!!

[petejames]

You can bring back a box of something special... Just declare and pay the duty.

Definitely sucks though!!

How is duty calculated?

[bdp]

Depending on the forum post you read, customs will weigh the box of cigars and guesstimate the box weight, or take the cigars out and weigh them exactly, only charging tobacco duties for the cigars' weight.

Some reports say customs can get it very wrong, but there is usually an opportunity to direct them to open the box at the airport, or go through a formal objection process built into the customs legal framework if you want to challenge their decision.

Here's a table of weights, just as a guide when thinking about what 25 sticks might weigh: http://cubancigarwebsite.com/lists/06-official-weights.html

And the way they calculate the total, including Customs duty, freight and insurance and GST on the whole thing: Example Calculations

I guess the last thing might be to ask the cigar dealer to open the box and actually weigh the cigars. Any weight written on the box, duty free paperwork or postage slips would be the shipping weight and an annotation of the weight of the tobacco contents might shortcut the time and improve accuracy (I'd hate to overpay, especially for an ornamental jar)