People who smoke know the pain of having to look for cheap cigarettes online or from their local corner stores. Prices of cigarettes have gone up exponentially in past years, mainly due to the varying excise taxes placed on them. Cigarettes are now highly taxed for several reasons—New York City in particular now pushes for around $10 a pack, the highest in the country—and whether smokers buy their packs from a neighborhood store or order cigarettes online, they are usually shocked to see how much they’re shelling out for their smokes. That’s primarily why some savvy customers are looking into purchasing duty-free cigarettes or tax-free cigarettes to circumvent paying excessive amounts or have a considerable chunk of their hard-earned cash just go towards their cigarette habit.

Consumers often wonder why they can enter a duty free shop and leave with their prized cartons without having paid tax for them. A duty is a kind of customs tax or indirect tax imposed on certain products meant for import or export, which is what makes the concept so ubiquitous in airports. It’s gained quite the level of popularity, in fact, since the first duty free shop was set up in 1947 in Ireland’s Shannon Airport. Duty-free cigarettes are void of tax because they’re sold to, presumably, traveling customers, or to those that buy them and bring them out of the country or consume these products internationally. This exact reason is what makes having to order cigarettes online a reality nowadays.

With the advent of modern technology, and taking into account the Internet’s expedient, anywhere-in-the-world shipping and delivery capabilities, consumers now look towards the web for a considerable amount of their shopping needs. Duty free shopping online has been gaining ground, and customers that frequent the websites offering this service take advantage of the perks that this Internet version of a duty free shop gives them: a wide choice of brands, free shipping, and of course, more affordable cigarettes provide the pull. Tax-free cigarettes are hard to come by, and chancing upon cheap cigarettes online or stumbling upon a store that sells your brand at a lesser price is definitely a plus.

Ordering Cigarettes Online

Barring any legal restrictions—you have to be 18 years of age or over, first and foremost—you are allowed to order cigarettes online and have them shipped to you. There are a lot of advantages to availing of this service, one being the convenience of browsing through their (usually extensive) catalog of products all in the convenience of your own home, and another being able to circumvent sky-high taxes on your regular pack of smokes. They also typically sell by carton, so buying cheap cigarettes online just became easier, since customers are now able to get them at a wholesale price. Online retailers that sell duty-free cigarettes also have several other items on their sites, including cigars, lighters and other smoking accessories for the tobacco aficionado to enjoy.