Beer from a U.S. day trip

[Kish84]

I got hit at Queenston/Lewiston last time so I'm 1/2 there. Rainbow is the worst I've used it twice and was stopped both times. Have never had a problem at the Peace bridge though.

There's usually 2 of us bringing close to or more than what you were bringing back, so I guess that helps our case.

Last trip was to Michigan, and the guy was confused because we gave a bottle count of around 60. It was over 48 hours though and we got let through.

Has anyone used the ferry in/around Sarnia?? I've heard people load up on cases of swill by using the ferry. The only beers that were getting people in trouble were Molson and Labatt beers.

[JeffPorter]

I think that customs officials asking us for the volume of the beers is simply going to become more common.

Having said that, all of grub's tips are pretty good, especially on having more stuff in the car...also, if you're married or have a girlfriend/boyfriend, bringing them along always helps. It looks like a family thing.

[Kel Varnsen]

a few tips:

1) always have something else in the car other than beer. a 5 minute trip to the grocery store or that bestbuy you always pass is always a good thing.

2) always round to the nearest half case. as soon as you give them some random number they're going to get suspicious and asking more questions. you want them thinking you got that cheap 24 or 30 cans of swill.

3) the longer the trip, the more you can get away with.

4) even better if you've got multiple people in the car... more people = less volume per person.

when they ask what you bought, I always answer with the total dollar value for the car and a quick summary of what it entails (including the beer). the last time I crossed (3 of us) it was "a total of $450 in the car including some groceries, clothes, dvds, and 3 cases of beer". right away they're thinking my wife was off shopping and the guys grabbed a few cheap 24's and they wave you through. in this case it was an overnight, but i've had the same thing many times in the past. if it's the same day trip, $100-150 and one case per person will usually get through clear. they don't need to know that that's $120 of beer and 2 dvds, and 90% of the time they don't ask or don't care. sometimes they're even kind enough to tell you that you need to be over 48 hours to get a free case - always play dumb. "oh gee, i thought it was after 24 hours" or something similar. you'd be surprised how easily it works.

I agree with what you have posted. I also find that the word mostly is a good word to use. When the guy asks me what I bought it is mostly some groceries, some baby supplies some presents for christmas/nephews birthdays. After that it seems to be hit or miss sometimes they will just say thank you and sometime they will specifically ask about alcohol. If they do I will tell them, but since it is usually only a small percentage of what I am bringing back (usually 3-4 six packs between myself and the cider my wife buys) it doesn't get included in the mostly.

[TheSevenDuffs]

a few tips:

1) always have something else in the car other than beer. a 5 minute trip to the grocery store or that bestbuy you always pass is always a good thing.

2) always round to the nearest half case. as soon as you give them some random number they're going to get suspicious and asking more questions. you want them thinking you got that cheap 24 or 30 cans of swill.

3) the longer the trip, the more you can get away with.

4) even better if you've got multiple people in the car... more people = less volume per person.

when they ask what you bought, I always answer with the total dollar value for the car and a quick summary of what it entails (including the beer). the last time I crossed (3 of us) it was "a total of $450 in the car including some groceries, clothes, dvds, and 3 cases of beer". right away they're thinking my wife was off shopping and the guys grabbed a few cheap 24's and they wave you through. in this case it was an overnight, but i've had the same thing many times in the past. if it's the same day trip, $100-150 and one case per person will usually get through clear. they don't need to know that that's $120 of beer and 2 dvds, and 90% of the time they don't ask or don't care. sometimes they're even kind enough to tell you that you need to be over 48 hours to get a free case - always play dumb. "oh gee, i thought it was after 24 hours" or something similar. you'd be surprised how easily it works.

I agree with what you have posted. I also find that the word mostly is a good word to use. When the guy asks me what I bought it is mostly some groceries, some baby supplies some presents for christmas/nephews birthdays. After that it seems to be hit or miss sometimes they will just say thank you and sometime they will specifically ask about alcohol. If they do I will tell them, but since it is usually only a small percentage of what I am bringing back (usually 3-4 six packs between myself and the cider my wife buys) it doesn't get included in the mostly.

That is definitely some good advice. Funny to think that spending more can reduce your chances of paying duty but it makes sense.

Interestingly, last Christmas I went down for 3 hours or so and bought just short of 2 cases of beer. I told the guy flat-out that I was over for a few hours and that I went just to get beer. He laughed at me and then said "Merry Christmas, you are good to go" ... it is all luck of the draw sometimes. That said, it does make sense that using some of grub's tips can increase your luck.

[grub]

I agree with what you have posted. I also find that the word mostly is a good word to use. When the guy asks me what I bought it is mostly some groceries, some baby supplies some presents for christmas/nephews birthdays. After that it seems to be hit or miss sometimes they will just say thank you and sometime they will specifically ask about alcohol. If they do I will tell them, but since it is usually only a small percentage of what I am bringing back (usually 3-4 six packs between myself and the cider my wife buys) it doesn't get included in the mostly.

ah, well for me "mostly" could be construed as a lie since it's usually mostly beer

I also explicitly tell them the total cost and total alcohol up front as over time I've found that if they ask about alcohol separately, they'll also ask about its value. it's trial and error, but so far that seems to work best. it relies on their assumption that most of the cost is in the non-beer items, but you can never be accused of being dishonest.

Interestingly, last Christmas I went down for 3 hours or so and bought just short of 2 cases of beer. I told the guy flat-out that I was over for a few hours and that I went just to get beer. He laughed at me and then said "Merry Christmas, you are good to go" ... it is all luck of the draw sometimes. That said, it does make sense that using some of grub's tips can increase your luck.

yeah, he probably figured you popped over to buy a couple of cheap cases and their cut on $20 of swill is going to be tiny. sometimes you get lucky. I still challenge anyone to beat my record: coming back from DLD '08 with 3 of us in the car and 48 hours away. declared 17 cases and got waved through

the fine print: I said we had a total of 17 cases in the car, but had each only purchased 2 and traded for the rest with canadian beer we'd brought down. The trading bit seems to be fuzzy for them - some wave you through since you didn't buy it, others assume duty, others somewhere in between. The law is that anything you bought or "received" is taxable, and i've even seen the customs officers argue among each other as to whether we should be paying. that year still remains the stuff of legend...

[TheSevenDuffs]

I still challenge anyone to beat my record: coming back from DLD '08 with 3 of us in the car and 48 hours away. declared 17 cases and got waved through

the fine print: I said we had a total of 17 cases in the car, but had each only purchased 2 and traded for the rest with canadian beer we'd brought down. The trading bit seems to be fuzzy for them - some wave you through since you didn't buy it, others assume duty, others somewhere in between. The law is that anything you bought or "received" is taxable, and i've even seen the customs officers argue among each other as to whether we should be paying. that year still remains the stuff of legend...

That is crazy. I wondered that too (about trading). What happens if you don't have a receipt? Lets say I choose to "lose" my receipt because just bought a $50 bottle of Bourbon County Rare. Or lets say I traded for the Rare and it was shipped to Buffalo where I picked it up. How do they calculate duty on that bottle?

[Kel Varnsen]

I agree with what you have posted. I also find that the word mostly is a good word to use. When the guy asks me what I bought it is mostly some groceries, some baby supplies some presents for christmas/nephews birthdays. After that it seems to be hit or miss sometimes they will just say thank you and sometime they will specifically ask about alcohol. If they do I will tell them, but since it is usually only a small percentage of what I am bringing back (usually 3-4 six packs between myself and the cider my wife buys) it doesn't get included in the mostly.

ah, well for me "mostly" could be construed as a lie since it's usually mostly beer

I also explicitly tell them the total cost and total alcohol up front as over time I've found that if they ask about alcohol separately, they'll also ask about its value. it's trial and error, but so far that seems to work best. it relies on their assumption that most of the cost is in the non-beer items, but you can never be accused of being dishonest.

Yea I wouldn't say it is mostly groceries and baby stuff when it is mostly beer that seems to be asking for trouble. And I see what you are saying about giving the alcohol value up front, although I have found at least half the time they don't even bother asking about alcohol, although usually like I said I am maybe bringing back 12-20 beers.

Also I found having a baby helps. I guess either the guards assume you went down to get cheap diapers/baby food. Or they don't want to bother you getting the baby out of the car, or they are worried the baby is going to melt down in the office. Either way since my baby was born in November 2010 I have not once had to pay duty.

[Kel Varnsen]

I still challenge anyone to beat my record: coming back from DLD '08 with 3 of us in the car and 48 hours away. declared 17 cases and got waved through

the fine print: I said we had a total of 17 cases in the car, but had each only purchased 2 and traded for the rest with canadian beer we'd brought down. The trading bit seems to be fuzzy for them - some wave you through since you didn't buy it, others assume duty, others somewhere in between. The law is that anything you bought or "received" is taxable, and i've even seen the customs officers argue among each other as to whether we should be paying. that year still remains the stuff of legend...

That is crazy. I wondered that too (about trading). What happens if you don't have a receipt? Lets say I choose to "lose" my receipt because just bought a $50 bottle of Bourbon County Rare. Or lets say I traded for the Rare and it was shipped to Buffalo where I picked it up. How do they calculate duty on that bottle?

I would be curious to know how people handled this too. The Manager at the Potsdam IGA told me if I was ever interested to let him know and I could bring some Canadian beer down and do a trade with him.

[grub]

That is crazy. I wondered that too (about trading). What happens if you don't have a receipt? Lets say I choose to "lose" my receipt because just bought a $50 bottle of Bourbon County Rare. Or lets say I traded for the Rare and it was shipped to Buffalo where I picked it up. How do they calculate duty on that bottle?

I would be curious to know how people handled this too. The Manager at the Potsdam IGA told me if I was ever interested to let him know and I could bring some Canadian beer down and do a trade with him.

well, we obviously didn't have receipts since it was trades, and they seemed to be pretty cool about it. they said that to make it easy i should have saved my canadian receipts for what i brought down. however, when i told him the cost of cases of mill street and the like, they thought it was pretty expensive, so it seems they figured we were being honest.

so yeah, i guess you could "lose" a receipt, but you'd run the risk that if they ever did search and start googling names you'd be in for trouble if you'd claimed it was a cheap bottle. I know folks who have gotten their car impounded and serious shit for lying to customs, so i tend to stick to the side of honesty and take the medicine on the few occasions i have to pay duty. i figure if you average it out over all the times you DON'T pay, you're doing pretty good.

[TheSevenDuffs]

I know folks who have gotten their car impounded and serious shit for lying to customs, so i tend to stick to the side of honesty and take the medicine on the few occasions i have to pay duty. i figure if you average it out over all the times you DON'T pay, you're doing pretty good.

Wow, I didn't know they had that kind of authority. I knew they could literally tear your car apart if they suspected that you were hiding someting from them but I didn't think they could impound your car for lying to them. That is some serious stuff...

[grub]

Wow, I didn't know they had that kind of authority. I knew they could literally tear your car apart if they suspected that you were hiding someting from them but I didn't think they could impound your car for lying to them. That is some serious stuff...

yeah, they can strip the car, confiscate anything you lied about, make you pay duty and fines on everything, and basically make your life hell. you could also guarantee that if you did survive all that, you'll probably be flagged and searched every time you cross from then on. I figure I probably pay duty on roughly 10-20% of my crossings, so even though a single $100 duty might sting, it still averages out to $10-20 per trip and that's certainly easier to handle.

[cfrancis]

Customs authority has slowly grown over the years. We have a story here in the office of our boss and German director going down to Ogdensburg to look at the US warehouse. They took the company van, called to secondary inspection on the US side, they took the keys to the van which is normal and inspected the van as questions were asked inside. When they were let go, my boss asked for the key to the van and the customs agent realized that he had locked it inside the van.

They refused to call a locksmith or CAA, our warehouse manager had to drive down from Ottawa with a spare key. Customs had also told us that the van had to be moved within the hour or else it would be towed at our expense because of the security risk.

yet it was customs that locked the bloody key in the car.

[TheSevenDuffs]

One thing I forgot to point out from my recent trip. Last time I went over I was forced to pay HST on the shipping cost to have my beer shipped to Buffalo. I wasn't happy but it was only 13% of a not all that large amount so I didn't argue that much.

This past time, they included the shipping in the cost of the beer!!! So I was basically paying 30-35% on the shipping cost, rather than 13%. I tried to argue my case and was told that the person last time was wrong and I was lucky to only be charged the HST.

My average duty on everything (including the shipping) was 31.1%. Usually I am closer to 35% but I had a few fairly expensive bottles that brought down the overall average slightly.

[The_Jester]

...I know folks who have gotten their car impounded and serious shit for lying to customs, so i tend to stick to the side of honesty and take the medicine on the few occasions i have to pay duty. i figure if you average it out over all the times you DON'T pay, you're doing pretty good.

I agree. Nothing is worth getting "red-flagged" - ie. getting checked automatically every time you cross.

[Belgian]

Wow, I didn't know they had that kind of authority. That is some serious stuff...

yeah, they can strip the car, confiscate anything you lied about, make you pay duty and fines on everything, and basically make your life hell. so even though a single $100 duty might sting, it still averages out to $10-20 per trip and that's certainly easier to handle.

Man up and pay the shot in the arm. You don't want to be a bigger asshole than the Canadian Customs Agent. Where's the righteous superiority?