UK personal allowances: what you can bring in

The most expensive mistake at the British border looks harmless: someone carries one litre of wine over the limit and assumes they will pay duty on that extra litre. They will pay on all nineteen. Going over an allowance cancels it for the entire category.

How much alcohol can you bring into the UK?

These are per-person allowances, and they cannot be pooled with fellow travellers:

Beer and cider — 42 litres. Wine, still or sparkling — 18 litres. Spirits above 22% ABV — 4 litres. Drinks up to 22% other than beer, cider and wine, such as fortified wine — 9 litres.

Only the last, nine-litre allowance can be split: two litres of spirits plus 4.5 litres of fortified wine, for instance. The others stand alone and do not flow into each other.

Tobacco, vapes and everything else

For tobacco you pick one option, which can then be split: 200 cigarettes, or 100 cigarillos, or 50 cigars, or 250g of tobacco, or 200 sticks for heated tobacco devices. Splitting means, say, 100 cigarettes and 25 cigars.

Vaping liquid: up to 50ml.

All other goods, gifts and souvenirs included, up to £390. Arriving by private plane or boat lowers the threshold to £270.

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What "over the allowance" actually means

This is the trap. Tax and duty are charged on the total value of the goods in that category, not on the excess. Nineteen litres of wine instead of eighteen means duty on all nineteen. Import VAT may be added on top.

The rules apply regardless of where you bought the item: duty-free shop or an ordinary shop abroad makes no difference.

How and when to declare

You must declare anything over your allowance and anything banned or restricted. You can do it online from 5 days (120 hours) before you arrive, or at the border itself.

A separate rule covers goods for sale or business use: there are no personal allowances for commercial goods at all, and they must be declared in any quantity.

The cost of saying nothing

Undeclared goods can be seized — along with the vehicle used to carry them. A fine or prosecution may follow. Against that, duty on one extra litre looks cheap.

If a teenager is travelling

Travellers under 17 have no personal allowances for alcohol, tobacco or vaping products. They may bring them for their own use, but must declare them before arriving.

Before any trip, five minutes on the GOV.UK allowances page is worth it: the figures differ for arrivals into Great Britain and into Northern Ireland.