Actual Duty Charges on US/Canadian border

[chasfm11]

We will be taking a 4,200 mile trip which includes, in the middle, entering Canada in Ontario at the Peace Bridge and exiting at Port Huron in MI. We will have liquor and wine with us for the trip. According to many who have crossed, they were waved through with open bottles and some wine without problems. It would be my luck, however, to be the one who is stopped and required to pay a duty.

A poster on another forum indicated that the B.C. duty is one dollar Canadian per ounce. If so, that would be 34 dollars Canadian for a 1 liter bottle - OUCH! Actually, I'm much more worried about the duty being assessed on our return to the US through MI.

Has anyone ever paid a duty on "extra" alcohol? If I remember correctly, when coming back from Mexico, it was $1.25 a bottle or something like that but that was a couple of years ago. I'm looking for some more recent experiences and at the Canadian border, on either side.

Thanks for your help.

Charlie

[chasfm11]

We will be taking a 4,200 mile trip which includes, in the middle, entering Canada in Ontario at the Peace Bridge and exiting at Port Huron in MI. We will have liquor and wine with us for the trip. According to many who have crossed, they were waved through with open bottles and some wine without problems. It would be my luck, however, to be the one who is stopped and required to pay a duty.

A poster on another forum indicated that the B.C. duty is one dollar Canadian per ounce. If so, that would be 34 dollars Canadian for a 1 liter bottle - OUCH! Actually, I'm much more worried about the duty being assessed on our return to the US through MI.

Has anyone ever paid a duty on "extra" alcohol? If I remember correctly, when coming back from Mexico, it was $1.25 a bottle or something like that but that was a couple of years ago. I'm looking for some more recent experiences and at the Canadian border, on either side.

Thanks for your help.

Charlie

[John_Canfield]

Hmmm... this isn't exactly recent (spring/summer/fall of 2006) - we crossed the border several times on our Alaska trip - drove up, took the ferry back from Haines to Prince Rupert, BC. We almost always had a case or two of wine and maybe a quart or two of rum on the coach. We always declared the quantity of spirits and nobody on either side of the border had a problem, not did we pay any duty.

The key point when going into Canada is the spirits are strictly for your personal use and you aren't going to set up a kiosk on the High Street and sell your cargo nor give/sell it to your new Canadian friends.

Only one time (clearing into BC from the ferry) did we get inspected. Showed the customs girl the spirits and the bear spray. The bear spray (purchased in Alaska) was legal in Canada because the label mentioned nothing about using it on humans - if it said you could also use it on a human attacker, it would be confiscated (sort of makes you feel safer while in Canada, eh?)

Don't worry - be happy