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Tobacco products as a gift from an EU country
If someone send you tobacco products as a gift from another EU country, check the instructions on the Tax Administration’s website.
If you receive tobacco products as a gift from Åland or the Canary Islands, you need to declare the consignment and pay taxes on it. Taxes must be paid in the same amount as for gifts arriving from outside the EU. However, no customs duties have to be paid.
The same concerns other gifts that arrive from an EU territory but outside the EU fiscal territory.
Tobacco products as a gift from outside the EU
If someone sends you tobacco products as a gift from outside the EU, you must declare the consignment and pay taxes on it.
If the gift contains tobacco products, you must always pay taxes for them: VAT and tobacco tax, which is part of the excise duties. They must be paid regardless of the price or the number of products.
In addition, in some instances you need to pay customs duties. However, you may receive the following tobacco products without customs duties, if they are worth 45 euros or less:
- 50 cigarettes or
- 25 cigarillos (weighing no more than 3 grams each) or
- 10 cigars or
- 50 grams of pipe and cigarette tobacco or
- a relative range of these products.
A relative range means that you can receive e.g. 25 cigarettes and 5 cigars, i.e., half of both maximum amounts, without having to pay customs duties.
However, you should note that taxes always have to be paid for products on this list.
Declare a gift primarily In the Import Declaration Service for private persons. If you are allowed to receive tobacco products without having to pay customs duties, declare the gift with a form.
Snus in gift consignments
For instance, you are not allowed to receive snus or other smokeless tobacco products as gifts.
The taxable value of a cigarette carton sent as a gift can be over 111 euros.
For example, you have received one cigarette carton as a gift from Iraq. Customs duty, tobacco duty and value added tax is levied on the cigarette carton sent to Finland, that is, for 200 cigarettes. To some extent, the amount of taxes levied on tobacco products depends on the cigarette brand that is imported to Finland.
Depending on the cigarette brand, the applied customs value of a cigarette carton is the average import price of 12.45–16.80 euros. The basic supposition is that there is no information available on the purchase price of the cigarettes. The postage fee is five euros which is added to the customs value amount.
The amount of general customs duty levied on cigarettes is 57.60 per cent, which is based on the customs value.
The amount of customs duty is 57.60 per cent of the value of the cigarette carton:
(12.45 € + 5 €) x 0.576 = 10.05 euros.
The amount of customs duty for one cigarette carton sent from Iraq is at least 10.05 euros.
Tobacco duty is levied based on the carton retail price confirmed by Finnish Tax Administration. The retail price from 1 March 2025 is 103.69 – 123.00 euros per carton, depending on the cigarette brand.
A minimum tobacco duty of 74.32 euros is always levied on a cigarette carton sent to Finland.
The amount of value added tax is 25.5 % of the import VAT basis. If the consignment to be declared is transported by Posti, then Posti’s handling fee is added to the taxable amount for VAT. The handling fee in our example is 3.10 euros.
The VAT basis comprises the customs value and the amount of customs duty, tobacco duty and Posti's handling fee:
(17.45 € + 10.05 € + 74,32 € + 3.10 €) x 0.255 = 26.75 euros.
A minimum tobacco duty of 26.75 euros is always levied on a cigarette carton sent to Finland.
The total amount of tax levied on a cigarette carton sent as a gift is at least 111.12 euros.