Buying tobacco and other nicotine-containing products while travelling abroad

When returning home from a trip abroad, there are no charges on tobacco and other nicotine-containing products you bring in for private use. To escape paying charges, you must keep within the charge-free quantity (the allowance) you can bring in as a traveller. This further depends on whether you buy the goods in another EU country or in a country outside the EU.

There are some rules you must obey no matter where you buy the tobacco and other nicotine-containing products:

• You must be at least 18 years old.
• The tobacco and other nicotine-containing products must be for your/your family’s¹ private use.
• You must have bought and be transporting the tobacco and the nicotine-containing products yourself.

Note that, at the border, it is the individual customs officer who assesses the reasonability of considering the goods as being for private use.

E-cigarettes and refills

Other rules apply to e-cigarettes and refills.

Read more about e-cigarettes and refills.

Buying tobacco in another EU country

If you buy tobacco in another EU country, you can bring in the quantity of tobacco that is regarded as being for your/your family’s private use.

In assessing whether the tobacco is for your/your family’s private use, Swedish Customs uses, amongst other things, the following refernce levels²:

• 800 cigarettes;
• 400 cigarillos
• 200 cigars; and,
• 1 kilo of smoking tobacco.

If the quantity of tobacco you are bringing in is above these reference levels, it is you who has to show that the quantity is reasonable for your/your family’s own use.

The quantity of tobacco is not the sole determiner used by customs officers in assessing whether the tobacco is really intended for your private use. Swedish Customs assesses all the circumstances.

Buying tobacco or other nicotine-containing products in a country outside the EU

Only certain quantities of tobacco may be brought into Sweden if you buy the tobacco in a country outside the EU. You may bring in any one of the following:

• 200 cigarettes or

• 100 cigarillos or
• 50 cigars or
• 250 g of smoking tobacco or
• a proportional selection of these tobacco products³.

Charge-free quantity of e-liquid that contains nicotine and of other nicotine-containing products:

• 20 millilitres of e-liquid that contains nicotine.
• 200 grams of other nicotine-containing products that, intended for use in mouth or nose, do not contain tobacco (e.g. tobacco-free oral snuff, nicotine gum and nicotine spray).

If you are resident in Sweden, the right to bring tobacco into Sweden without paying charges is conditional on you being abroad for more than 20 hours or making the return journey with an aircraft on a commercial flight.

If you wish to bring in more than the charge-free quantity, you must pay customs duty, VAT and any other taxes on the excess. You must also declare it to Swedish Customs by choosing the red lane when crossing the border.

Read more about declaring goods to Swedish Customs – Choosing the red lane at the border.

Tobacco tax and nicotine tax

För tobak och nikotinhaltiga produkter som du tar med dig från ett land utanför EU ska du, utöver den avgiftsfria mängden, betala tull, moms och svensk tobaksskatt eller nikotinskatt. För e-vätska och andra nikotinhaltiga produkter ska du, utöver den avgiftsfria mängden, betala nikotinskatt även om du för in dem från ett annat EU-land.

On any tobacco and nicotine-containing products above the charge-free quantity that you bring in from a country outside the EU, you must pay customs duty, VAT and Swedish tobacco tax or nicotine tax. On any e-liquid and other nicotine-containing products above the charge-free quantity that you bring in, you must pay the nicotine tax, even if you buy them in another EU country.

• Cigarettes: customs duty, SEK 0.34 each; tax, SEK 0.196 each.
• Cigars: customs duty, SEK 0.86 each; tax, SEK 0.219 each.
• Smoking tobacco: customs duty, SEK 428 per kg; tax, SEK 2,422 per kg.
• Oral snuff: customs duty, SEK 104 per kg; tax, SEK 762 per kg.
• E-liquid:
  • From a country outside the EU – customs duty, SEK 320 per litre; tax, SEK 3,300 per litre.
  • From another EU country – tax, SEK 2,000 per litre.
• Other nicotine containing products:
  • From a country outside the EU – customs duty, SEK 390 per kg; tax, SEK 1,225 per kg.
  • From another EU country – tax, SEK 200 per kg.

These rules apply even when you buy tobacco and nicotine-containing products outside the EU’s fiscal territory (e.g. from Åland and the Canary Isles). This is so even though said countries are, in other connections, classed as being part of the EU.

EU’s fiscal territory (information in swedish from the Swedish Tax Agency).

Questions and answers

Read frequently asked questions and answers about buying tobacco when travelling abroad.