# Allowances, and why they differ

The saving that matters is the one you still have after customs. Every country sets its own personal allowance for spirits, wine, beer, fragrance and tobacco, the limits are revised without much announcement, and the one that applies to you is set by the country you arrive in, not the one you fly out of. A large purchase made without checking is the most common way a good buy turns into a bad one.

## The allowance belongs to your destination

If you fly from an airport with a generous shelf to a country with a tight limit, the tight limit governs. The shop will sell you as much as you wish to carry; it is not the shop's job to police another country's customs. Look up the arrival country's official guidance before you buy, on that country's own customs or border website, and treat anything else as hearsay.

## Litres, not bottles

Most allowances are written in litres of a category, not in bottles. A litre bottle and a 70 centilitre bottle are not interchangeable for this purpose, and two litre bottles will exceed a two bottle assumption where the limit is written as one litre of spirits. Where the limit distinguishes strength, the dividing line is usually around 22 percent alcohol by volume, with spirits above it and fortified wine below, but the exact wording is the country's own.

## Allowances are per person, and sometimes per age

An allowance is generally per traveller, and travellers under the local drinking or smoking age have none for those categories. Pooling a family's allowances is accepted in some jurisdictions and not in others. Where it is accepted, it is still per person in the sense that each person must be present and eligible.

## Internal borders behave differently

Travel inside a customs union is usually not a duty free journey at all. Goods move with duty already paid, the shop is an ordinary retailer with a travel range, and the limits that apply are the far larger personal use guidelines rather than a duty free allowance. The prices on those shelves reflect it.

## Declaring costs less than being found

Going over the allowance is not an offence; failing to declare it is. In most countries you may bring in more than the allowance by declaring the excess and paying the duty on it, which is frequently still a sensible buy. Getting stopped with an undeclared excess costs the duty, a penalty and the time.

## The short version

Look up the arrival country's limit, convert your intended purchase into litres, count the travellers who actually qualify, and decide before you are standing at the shelf with a flight to catch. Then use the twenty minutes you have to choose well: [compare the shops on your route](/savings).