tobacco import/export

[vicious_sid]

I'm not sure if this is in the right topic but here goes....
I recently (tonight) purchased my regular consigment of tobacco from my usual website (uktobaco) and then tried to find an EU site that imported tobacco into the UK. I couldn't find any but my usual website exports to theEU. anybody know why this is?

[Buenchico]

In general, most goods imported from other EU countries don't attract taxes or duties. However, goods which qualify for excise duty (such as tobacco or alcohol) come under separate rules. Although you can personally import a (theoretically) unlimited quantity of tobacco without making any payment to HMRC, you can't buy postal imports without paying excise duty, VAT and a customs examination fee on the consignment:
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebAp p/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_page Label=pageTravel_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000014 &propertyType=document#P170_18628

By the time these charges have been taken into account, there are no savings to be made by buying from abroad. (The total cost of the purchase usually works out at least 10% higher than UK supermarket prices). So there is no point in traders from other EU countries exporting to the UK.

Chris

[vicious_sid]

has anyone questioned the legality of this - I'm not a lawyer but if you buy direcctly when visiting eu country you would automatically pay vat excise duty etc (but obviously not customs exminations fee) so why is this different when ordering by post?