canadian duty on alcohol

I phoned Canadian customs one year and was told 150% of the price of the bottle in BC-so for a $12. bottle add $12. and $6. dollars to the price-comes to $30. for the bottle. I understand Alberta is different percentage.. We have brought open heels of bottles back with no problem and our allowable 2 bottles with no tax on anything.

Don't haul much, you can buy it almost every where you go. Less hassle!

Fizz wrote:
Every time we came back home we declared our limit plus leftovers, never had a problem. If the seal is broken and some liquid missing it doesn't count.
Don't try it with a dozen bottles.

Pretty much our experience also. We've had 4-5 bottles of various alcohols (some open) and never had an issue after wintering south; we always declare it.

I would never pay duty and taxes on any if we weren't allowed to cross with it, way too expensive. I would just have them dump it.

Every time we came back home we declared our limit plus leftovers, never had a problem. If the seal is broken and some liquid missing it doesn't count.
Don't try it with a dozen bottles.

AFHauler wrote:


We chose #3. We don't know how much the duty and taxes have changed over the years but wouldn't imagine it would be too much.

#4 empty the bottle (or ask the customs agent to do do). that way you know it was properly destroyed.

they may decide to let it go after all ....

long ago on a hot summers day, my father forgot about the two cold beers in the cooler when we were returning on vacation. it was obvious to him where those two ice cold beers were going to be disposed when we departed. so the demand was made to empty the beers. we left with the beers

This past summer we had just started a 2 month trip across Canada and the eastern states. My wife and I entered Quebec and declared in advance we had 8 bottles of wine and 5 cartons of cigarettes with us.
They told us to pull over and open the slides on our 5th wheel. They spent around 45 minutes going through it.
They only found what we declared. They fined us $112 for being over what we were allowed.

Occasionally you'll just get passed through if you declare what you have and it's not excessive. The times I have had to pay, the duties and taxes basically add up to what the bottle would have cost to buy in Canada.

The duties are basically just a deterrent. If they make US booze cost the same as it does in Canada, Canadians will stop cross border shopping and buy local.

Some years ago we came up to Canada around Montana. We had dropped into the US the day before and were just meandering around and decided to hop back into Canada. We had purchased a 40 oz bottle of Rum before reaching the Border. When asked how long we had been down it quickly became clear we had not been in the US long enough to have any duty-free but, because we were not attempting to hide anything, the officer gave us three choices:

#1 Turn around and go back to the US and stay for 48 hours or see if the store we bought it from would let us return it.
#2 Pay the duty on the bottle. In this case, the bottle cost us $16.00 US and the duty and taxes would have added up to around $80.00 CDN.
#3 Surrender the bottle to them.

We chose #3. We don't know how much the duty and taxes have changed over the years but wouldn't imagine it would be too much.

I would caution you a little, but also we have declared extra with no duty too. From my experience, it depends on the wine you are bringing back too. I would think, if you have expensive bottles of wine that would cost much more in BC, they might make you pay. If you have cheap bottles of wine, save the purchase receipts, make it easy on them, and keep your extras within a small number. They will ask the value of the product you are bringing in. I have heard of a full case being passed, but you are also inviting a search to see if they can find more.