taking wine to Canada

[bill j]

It is my understanding that each person is allowed take 1.5 liters of wine from the US into Canada duty free. If I take more than that amount and declare it with Canadian Customs, how much duty will I pay? If we are going for several months into BC and take say two cases of wine, what would the fees be? Thanks for any advice - Bill

 

[scross]

Bill,
Can’t answer your question directly but can offer some suggestions. Any reasonable amount of “ships stores”, which are open and partially consumed bottles of alcohol don’t seem to count towards the total for the tariff. Ships stores must be declared and only consumed on the boat when in Canada. I guess the Canadians don’t think you can sell a half empty bottle of rum to their citizens...
We only bring in our 1.5 liters per person (4 bottles for the 2 of us) of our personal favorite wine and buy the rest for our trips in Canada. The government controlled wine stores in Ganges, Sidney, Ladysmith and Nanaimo are well stocked, some of the wines are pretty good and the prices (given the exchange rate) are reasonable.
PS: Believe the tariff runs between 7-20% of the value of the wine imported but that’s a rough guess since we don’t do it.

 

[baz]

If you have a dog with you make sure you have a Vet signed certificate showing dog has Rabies vaccination. Some say the Vet signature should be in blue ink as well ! 🙂 😱

The last time I went through Canadian customs at Bedwell I actually forgot I had Jake with me even though I had all the paper work for him.... and all went well as I steamed off without anyone barking/yelling at me.... :lol:

If you've never taken your boat to Canada before the Customs interview takes a bit longer as they have to enter the new boat data into their data base etc.

 

[chronicity]

I tried to take about 8 bottles (maybe some hard liquor too?) with me last winter and the duty is more than you want to think about. I had thought it was 10% but it was way more. I can't remember exactly how much, but really a lot--so much that I preferred to dump the bottles.

When they asked, I told them I was taking them up for an American friend who has a condo in Canada. I think the right answer would have been "I'm taking them to consume myself during my trip." I'm not completely sure whether that solves everything, but I had the impression it would have been better. The other correct answer would have been "no officer, I only have two bottles with me." I also had the impression he wished I had just said that. However, I'm the world's worst liar . . .. The same friend who has the condo told me he lied once and got busted--I can't remember the consequences.

The officer took pity on us and only made us sacrifice one or two bottles, and we paid no duty. That might not happen at a really busy crossing? I would have dumped whatever he told us, because it seemed like the duty was more than the wine was worth. He told us to take them out in the woods near the building, on the Canadian side (we were at a remote low-traffic point of entry) and pour them out. I didn't have a corkscrew so had to break them, lol. He obviously wasn't looking and didn't really care--just told us to dump and continue with our journey. He didn't really want the hassle of trying to figure out the duty.

Next time I'm limiting myself to the approved amounts.

 

[aintmissb]

Going back to the wine question, and speaking from the North side of the border, I have established long ago that there is little or no benefit to importing your own wine from the US, because the duties, after the 1.5 litres, are effectively prohibitive. Can't give you any figures, but my guess is around $5-$10 a bottle. Plus the paperwork is guaranteed to annoy you.

Canadian Border Services will give you the numbers if you ask them.

Roger Ware, Kingston, ON

 

[Maggie Anne]

It depends on what province the wine is brought into. For most of us traveling in boats, it will be BC, where the duty is quite high for bottles over the 2 per person limit. Basically equal to the price of the wine so a $15 bottle will pay roughly $15 in duty. If you are over the limit, you can at least choose which of your two allowed bottles is exempt so you'd naturally pick the two most expensive to exclude from duty and pay duty on the rest. When we go we just bring in the duty free amount and then buy more in Canada.

 

[Scottfree]

Paying Duty on wine and Spirits will likely be more than you can buy it for in Canada. When you buy wine, spirits or beer make sure to purchase at a BC Government Liquor store and not a private vendor such as a Beer and Wine Store or the grocery store. It is almost always cheaper at the Government store. My Understanding is that the private vendors pay full retail and then mark it up (not sure how I know this?). Stock up in major centers as the selection is better. The further up Island you go the less accessible the Government stores are. If you have to buy your favourite bottle off the main island you will pay dearly.

Exchange your USD to Canadian Dollars at home or use credit cards. It's ironic and consistent that Canadian vendors are poor mathematicians when calculating the exchange rate and it's not in your favour. Also remember BC stands for Bring Cash, everything here is worth more for some reason.

Enjoy and be safe, Leon

 

[scross]

The absolute most important thing about bringing food and wine/liquor into Canada is to declare EXACTLY what you have. The worst thing that can possibly happen is being busted (BIG FINE!) for forgetting to mention a lemon or other forbidden fruit on your boat. If you declare it and its forbidden they usually just have you dispose of it. Chopping up vegatables seems to solve many produce problem because you now have “salad fixings” rather than whole carrots, lettuce, bell peppers, broccoli and such.
After about 4 minutes of hearing me declare every last item of produce, meat, wine and “ships stores” that I have on the boat to Canadian Customs they tend to get bored and tell me to be on my way. We use Nexus so we rarely are at a customs dock.
Most, but not all, Canadian marina stores will have at least a limited selection of wines and/or liquor. Montague Harbor and Silva Bay are dry.

 

[YukonRon]

We regularly travel across the border between Yukon and Alaska and have had the same experiences both ways. We once cut our stay in Alaska short and came home early, realizing that our allowable limit would be less and we would pay duty on the alcohol coming back into Canada. I can't remember the numbers, but I gave a huge sigh of relief when the officer took pity on us, and let us off with a warning. We have also been threatened with being banned from ever entering the USA again because I forgot to declare a tomato. We have been ordered to drive back to Canada and throw our US grown oranges in the bush because the peels can spread disease to other orange groves. In Alaska? Seriously? We have had food confiscated and dumped. We have had to leave firewood piled on the side of the road. We are criminals for forgetting to declare our weapons (bear spray).
And the rules change every time we go. We dutifully checked the customs website and packed food accordingly, only to be told half of what we were bringing in was illegal. We told them we went by the website and they said no, there are updates, here is the paper list to go by. We said:"But if we don't get the list till we are at the border, how do we know what to pack? That's why we check the website." They said "We can't keep up with updating the website so we go by the paper list" Go figure.
We have long since decided to bring the minimum, and buy what we need on the other side. Pay the price and save the hassles.

 

[Bruce Moore]

We're also Nexus Card holders - trusted travelers. We follow the rules carefully. In the case of the OP's post, we carry two bottles of wine OR one bottle of spirits per person. We also carry ship's stores open bottles like vermouths, bitters, etc.

The trusted traveler status (involving background checks and interviews) is a tremendous convenience when boating and flying. We don't want to take a chance on becoming "untrusted" travelers!

 

[Crewdog]

Can't speak to tariffs, but we were pleased with the BC wines, especially from the Okanagan region.

 

[marcham]

You may be able to claim wine as Ship's stores. Excess would be sealed but some quantity would be available for consumption. We have good wine, especially in BC!

Crossing the border in a travel trailer, we never had an issue with the quantity of liquor we carried, I don't think we were ever asked...

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