moving and bringing alcoholic beverages

by **Godzilla** » Tue May 01, 2012 3:36 pm

An important question,which anyone moving to Finland needs to know the answer to - how much can you bring in your moving stuff when moving inside the EU?

Living in the NL where Belgian beer is about 1 euro per bottle, we've acquired a taste for the stuff. It goes for about 3-4 euros per bottle in Finland. I don't know if I can stand to go back to drinking what passes for "beer" in Finland. My plan is to stuff the moving truck full of as much beer as we can reasonably drink, or maybe unreasonably drink as there is nothing reasonable about this, before the expiration date on the bottle. Also, red wine, but it lasts much, much longer... so more can be brought! But the price difference is not as extreme.

The Tulli page is pretty vague on what you can bring with you when moving. Apparently, one can bring as much as one wants as long as it is for personal consumption, which this will be, but they leave it open at what point they will consider it not to be for personal consumption. It is not included in "tax free moving goods," and so could be taxed. Our stuff will move independantly of ourselves, as we are hiring a moving firm.

Does anyone have experience with this?

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by **Upphew** » Tue May 01, 2012 6:18 pm

People fetch their "beer" from Tallinna as it is cheaper there:

by **rinso** » Tue May 01, 2012 6:42 pm

but they leave it open at what point they will consider it not to be for personal consumption. It is not included in "tax free moving goods," and so could be taxed. Our stuff will move independantly of ourselves, as we are hiring a moving firm.

If you don't carry it in your own car, anything more than a 6-pack will probably be taxed. And if you do not declare it, you can get a fine on top of it.

by **zetorpilot** » Tue May 01, 2012 8:06 pm

I've not (so far) had a problem with Tulli when I've had customers' alcohol in my load. This includes several occasions when my truck has been x-rayed. The quantities involved have been a dozen or so cases of beer, or a similar quantity of wine. In all cases I have been personally satisfied that they have been genuinely the customers own property for their own use. If you think about it, it would be pretty tough to have to give up an expensive collection of wine, when simply moving from one EU country to another.

by **Godzilla** » Wed May 02, 2012 7:45 pm

I'd expect them to allow a quantity of alchohol consistent with what a normal house might have on hand, considering the rule is that you can bring whatever you like for personal use. However, the fact that they don't seem to state their policy, whatever it is, up-front is a bit odd. It would be tough to give up an expensive wine collection, but then, they could reason that if you're the sort of person who has that kind of thing, you won't mind paying a bit of duty on it. Still, it is reassuring that it doesnt seem usually to cause a problem.

by **Godzilla** » Wed May 02, 2012 7:46 pm

Upphew wrote:People fetch their "beer" from Tallinna as it is cheaper there:

This is exactly the sort of beer that I'm trying to AVOID having to drink!

by **Sami-Is-Boss** » Sun May 13, 2012 10:54 pm

It is a gross violation of human rights to ask somebody to go from drinking Belgian beer (the best in the world) to Finnish (probably among the worst)

by **Upphew** » Mon May 14, 2012 8:30 am

Sami-Is-Boss wrote:It is a gross violation of human rights to ask somebody to go from drinking Belgian beer (the best in the world) to Finnish (probably among the worst)

We do have excellent beers, but not so much variety and the bulk of the beers sold are lagers from the big three (Hartwall, Sinebrychoff, Olvi). Also the legislation makes things harder for beers that have more than 4,7% ABV as they can be only sold at bars or Alko.

by **jahasjahas** » Mon May 14, 2012 11:11 am

Sami-Is-Boss wrote:Finnish (probably among the worst)

If you buy your Finnish beer from Estonia, you're going to have a bad time :evil:

by **Godzilla** » Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:30 pm

Upphew wrote:
Sami-Is-Boss wrote:It is a gross violation of human rights to ask somebody to go from drinking Belgian beer (the best in the world) to Finnish (probably among the worst)

We do have excellent beers, but not so much variety and the bulk of the beers sold are lagers from the big three (Hartwall, Sinebrychoff, Olvi). Also the legislation makes things harder for beers that have more than 4,7% ABV as they can be only sold at bars or Alko.

It's possible to get good beer in Finland, it just costs 3-4 times as much as here. And you have to go to Alko to get it.