I plan on making an upcoming ski trip to Vermont this year. I'll be travelling from Michigan through Canada to VT. My question is...........how much beer am I allowed to bring back (is there a limit) travelling back through Canada en route to Michigan and do I need declare this stuff? I will not be staying in Canada - only travelling through.
The only laws that you have to worry about are INTO Canada from the US. As long as you buy a US product and return it to US soil, you don't have to worry about customs duties. You will however have to declare your purchase to Canadian customs and pay applicable taxes even though you are just travelling through Canada. Fortunately the tax on beer is low as the taxes are based on alcohol content. Most likely they will just wave you through without you having to pay. I would just slide through one of the less traveled routes into Canada. Keep your receipt proving you purchased the beer in the US. When you hit US customs coming back into Michigan, show them the receipt indicating that you bough the beer in the US and you are good.
I know of no limit, however, it is always best to declare your beer. When I travel to Germany, I take American Craft beer there to give some samples away of GOOD AMERICAN BEER, as opposed to the mass market lagers they think that Americans drink. I declare it and the Germans Customs folks normally chuckle about it, pass me through and I pay nothing. When I come home, I fill up with a variety of German beer (I am a label collector), declare it (up to 60 + bottles) and have not ever paid duty. The customs folks worry more about hard liquor than beer (or wine).
I cannot tell you if there are volume limits for Americans coming into all Canadian provinces, but for Canadian citizens re-entering Canada with beer in Ontario, we are allowed to bring 47 litres (um...12.5 gallons...an assload?) of beer into the province as long as we pay the duty and taxes. If you re-enter in Quebec that limit drops to 17.5 litres or about 2 cases. As mentioned, the duty into Ontario (and Quebec) is fairly low (I paid about $35 CDN, about $25 USD, on about 3 cases valued at $300 CDN...yeah lots of expensive shit) , and in most cases they aren't going to hassle an American passing through...we need your tourist dollars. They only want to tax and grab Canadian citizens' money.
You can check on the US customs and Immigration (and Canadian C&I) for the limits. I think (please don't quote me) it's case of beer per person going into Canada, or a bottle of booze, a couple bottles wine. I don't remember if this is an and or situation. I checked because of the time I was driving through Vermont to get to Canada (Montreal) and wanted to stop for Heady Topper (got the last full case they had that day) and was worried about bringing it back nd forth.
When I went from Vermont north to Montreal I gave the customs agent a list of all the beer I had and she was really confused about why I had a list. She thought it was a list of what to buy by my "friends" in Montreal. It took a while to explain that we did not know anyone there and that we would be bringing it all back to Michigan. My understanding is that each person is allowed two cases of twelve ounce beer. I was over that with my wife but she didn't care. Also, dieu du ciel (spelled wrong) in Montreal is incredible.
