Crossing a border several times to increase duty free allowance

6/13/2022 2:33:18 PM

Beyond that specific case, there are a number of rules that can be used to make sure duty-free allowances are difficult to abuse (not all of them might apply to any one country and some might be difficult to enforce):

  • Time-based limit as already mentioned by others. Alternatively, the allowance can also be limited to one use "per trip" (the end of the trip being defined as the time you return to your usual place of residence).
  • Allowances only apply for personal use. If Bob, Elise and Camilla really want to use 20 units of A for themselves then it could still be technically OK but if a car goes back and forth, customs agents might very well get suspicious and consider that they are likely to want to resell them. That’s usually illegal, even if the total price is well under the threshold.
  • Allowances are not that high, you could play games with clothing or food but big ticket items are out (a single mid-range computer or smartphone is often already over the limit by itself).
  • Allowances are typically even lower for tobacco and alcohol, which are often highly taxed and attractive to smugglers.
  • The duty-free allowance may be lower when entering by road rather than by air and/or sea (because open land borders lend themselves to a quick trip to buy something in the neighbouring country, whereas even a cheap flight is already much more of a hassle).
  • The duty-free allowance may also be lower for cross-border workers, people living close to the border or working in international transport (because they can bring a few items every day without much inconvenience).

Regarding enforcement, many borders in Europe are quite "soft" (certainly compared to earlier times or other parts of the world) and you will often get waved through or walk through the green channel at airports without anybody talking to you or looking through your stuff. Customs agents rely on random searches or simply noticing that something seems odd (like a car showing up frequently) and, if it comes to that, they can ask you to prove you did not break the rule (the burden of proof is on you). Another way many people get caught is simply tips: from jealous neighbours, estranged spouses, competitors, etc. None of this is systematic but that’s how it works for all customs rules including checking that travellers are not exceeding the allowance itself so any 24-hour limit would not be unusual in that respect.

7/28/2016 10:03:50 PM

To answer your question (and also limit the answer to entering Norway), Norwegian custom rules only allow you to make use of the duty free allowance once every 24 hour.

Quoting from Norwegian Custom’s information page on the duty free allowance:

Hvis du er i utlandet kortere enn ett døgn: Ved utenlandsopphold på
mindre enn ett døgn kan du én gang i løpet av 24 timer ta med deg
alkohol- og tobakkskvoten hvis du kan dokumentere at du har betalt
avgifter i et EØS-land. Du kan derfor ikke handle på tax-free.

Or my rough translation: If you stay abroad for less than one day (24 hours), you can once every 24 hours make use of your free alcohol and tobacco allowance if you can document that you have bought the items with duty in another EEA country. You can therefore not bring items bought tax-free.

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

About me

Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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