Shipping Beer Into Canada

I have lost two boxes through Winnipeg because of their diligent CBSA staff and I guess the X-ray machine, damn you people for you doing your job well!

I have never had any trouble through Mississauga though I have noticed that clearance times can be lengthy, must be a busy place.

I have stopped trading with people on the east coast or central U.S, only west coast trades… That way the package is pretty much guaranteed to not go through Winnipeg, as I live in Calgary. I have had no troubles with the Tsawwassen port. Though I have heard recently that some people have had troubles at Tsawwassen.

 

made it to canada and it´s now waiting for customs review since monday. :/ very well packed, lets see what happens. fingers crossed.

 

The more of you asking this question, the less likely my box will go through unscathed. I think it's a risk, but one I have often taken.

 

Has anyone has any luck with getting their package shipped to a US shipping address and then driving across the border to pick it up and bring it back? In terms of claiming at the border any issues as you won't have any receipt on the cost of the beer?

 

Yup! You get no exemption so it's at the discretion of the boarder agent what they want to do. $11.47 for a 24pk of 5% alcohol beer is the duty (last time someone I know got pulled over). Suggest you keep it to a 24pk and prey they don't pull you over. Imagine if they get sticky they might charge duty based upon actual alcohol coming in by calculating it out.

 

Yeah, i was worried about this as well before and we had a nice discussion over on bartowel about it. I generally try and only bring boxes back when I'm coming back from 48 hours in the states so that they get covered in my 24 bottle allowance. But if that doesn't work for timing, i do this for same day trips:

- always try and cross with more than just beer, keeping it to around $100-$150, so that I can answer $100 when asked how much I have. when they ask what I have, "clothes and beer", how much beer, see below
- I declare the volume amount that i convert to small bottle size (so i always answer either 6, 12, or 18 bottles on same day trips and don't cross with more than the equivalent to 18 beers) and don't mention that I have 3 750ml, 1 500ml, and 4 350ml bottles as it just confuses them and creates more questions
- always bring with you store or brewery web pages that show the price of the beer i'm bringing in so that when i do get pulled over i can hand them these and explain that these beers were a gift from a friend and this is what they are worth.

it's always just luck on what type of border guard you get, but generally just blending in works the best. I just got back from vermont with two cases of beers for myself and another guy in the car and also bought some new snowpants while there since needed new pants anyway. the main reason i bought them now was so that i could honestly answer $700 in snowboard gear and beer, rather than $500 in beer which would confuse anyone as to how you can only have 4 cases of beer and spend $500, that's an auto pullover right there. instead i just got waived through since the assumption is that i just had regular bud light bro and some snowboarding gear.

 

Coming back from Canada (BC), the US agents have always been more concerned with everything else we buy. One trip I bought a bunch of beer and my wife bought some art. They grilled us on the art but didn't ask how much the beer cost or even want to see it. I was up last Saturday for about 10 hours and only brought beer back, told them as much and was ready to pay any taxes. The guy didn't seem to care and waived us through. The Canadian couple I talked with at Four Winds looked at me like I was insane for trying to bring beer back without staying overnight.

 

Yeah, definitely what distantmantra is saying is spot on as well, just being honest with what you have and being prepared to pay taxes on it definitely puts you at ease with the guards and works well to get through many times as well. My last four day trips across i've made it clear without paying any taxes and i've actually only had beer and told them that. they were actually curious about what the fancy beer i had was and why i went across just to grab 12 or so of those. one guard even told me that it was a good thing i just didn't go across for bud or something.

 

Nah, us Canadians always look that way .

 

It was funny. I suggested that the next time they were down in Bellingham on a Costco run that they stop into Chuckanut and buy some bottles. Their response was "Oh no, we couldn't do that cause we're not staying overnight."

 

BC is/can be one of the most expensive border crossings for Canadians coming back from the States. I made that mistake once, and got dinged around $260.00 on total beer purchases of around $750.00. I was also out of the country for 8 days. Only came back in through BC to save time as the Alberta crossing was a fair distance away.

Never coming back through BC again!!

 

@Torontoblue incredibly that could have been worse, 80% of retail is the standard duty for BC. Had you gone for less than 24 hours, you'd have a bill of $600...

 

Seems this comes up a lot. Here's the chart for what you will pay if you have no duty-free allowance. Every province is different.

Appendix B: http://cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/dm-md/d2/d2-3-6-eng.pdf

Just last weekend I went down to Bellingham overnight, we were gone over 24hrs, which means we could each bring back $200 of stuff. But not alcohol, duty free booze you need to be gone 48hrs. I've been over the border for an hour before and brought back 2 cases and they didn't care.

Well, I bought 1 $7.99 sixpack this time. My friend picked up an online order that was approx $150US. 18 Beers all together.

Border was dead. They searched the car twice looking at each individual beer. I had to pay $9.80 in duty/tax/markup and with exchange rate the $7.99 US six pack ended up costing me $21 Canadian LOL! My friend had to pay about $120.

It's completely random. Over time, it's worth it to just chance it. I've been pulled in 3 times out of maybe 30.

I my case the markup on that six pack was close to 100%. The minimum duties were the cause of that. But it's generally 70-80%, depending on if they check the abv it could actually sting a lot worse if your beers are over 12% in BC. I've yet to hear of anyone having them check that though.

 

Never had a border guard ever calculate my beer by alcohol content and volume both. Last time I had 10 liters (various sizes and ABVs), the guy inside was looking things over closely and was getting ready to input the beers one by one, when his supervisor came over, looked at the receipt and said "One 24 of lager...code whatever" and then "Keep it simple...it all works out in the end...this is a taxpayer not a criminal" From there he put in the value and I walked away $20 lighter in the wallet ($20 on $130 isn't bad)

 

I'll be flying into Calgary from Seattle for a short stay, and will probably have some beers (maybe up to 12 bottles) in my checked bag. Are there any limits or prohibitions I should know about? Thanks in advance.

 

You should be fine, you can bring 8.5L (288oz or 24x12oz) into Canada duty free.

 

Just be sure to tell customs if they ask that it is for your own consumption, even if this is not true. This goes both ways when crossing the border. Gifts of booze is frowned upon but for your own consumption is not an issue.