Tobacco — New Zealand
What travelers need to know about tobacco in New Zealand. What is legal at home can be a serious crime here — each rule links to its official source.
Tobacco in New Zealand: restricted — there are real limits travelers must follow.
New Zealand lets you bring in 50 cigarettes - a quarter of what most countries allow - or 50 grams of cigars or loose tobacco, and you pick one of those, not all of them. Bring more and you must declare it and pay: a carton of 200 costs about NZ$301 in duty and GST on top of what you paid for it. The NZ$1,000 low-value exemption that covers everything else does not apply to tobacco.
Undeclared tobacco over the limit is seized and destroyed, and New Zealand Customs states you "may be fined or prosecuted". Duty and GST payable on the excess, as published by Customs on 18 July 2025: NZ$301.23 per 200 cigarettes, NZ$225.92 per 150, NZ$75.31 per 50; NZ$107.31 per 50 grams of tobacco; NZ$94.13 per 50 grams of cigars and cigarillos. Customs notes these are indicative and calculated on a value for duty of NZ$1, so more is payable if the goods are worth more. An undated Customs PDF still shows materially lower figures - the dated web page is the current one.
§ New Zealand Customs Service - Duty-free shopping (09 Jul 2025) + Duty and allowances (18 Jul 2025); Working Tariff Document Part II Concession 82