When seeking entry to Canada, you should be aware of what items you need to declare, which items are illegal to bring into the country, and which items you’ll have to pay taxes and/or duty on.
Failing to declare these items can have consequences and result in you being unable to enter Canada.
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What items need to be declared?
When seeking admission at a Canadian port of entry, you must declare any of the following to border officials:
- alcohol;
- tobacco;
- firearms and weapons;
- food, plant, and animal products;
- animals; and
- currency or financial instruments in excess of 10,000 CAN.
Alcohol
Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) defines alcoholic beverages as products exceeding 0.5% alcohol content by volume.
The minimum age to bring alcohol into Canada varies by province. It is currently 18 years old for Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec and 19 years old for other provinces.
Tobacco
You must declare all tobacco products including:
- cigarettes;
- cigars;
- manufactured tobacco (including loose leaf and chewing tobacco); and
- tobacco sticks.
Firearms and weapons
You must be 18 or over to bring a firearm or weapon into Canada. Any firearm or weapon must be declared at the border.
Section 2 of the Criminal Code of Canada defines a firearm as follows:
‘A barreled weapon from which any shot, bullet, or other projectile can be discharged and that is capable of causing serious bodily injury or death to a person, and includes any frame or receiver of such a barreled weapon and anything that can be adapted for use as a firearm.’
Canada classifies firearms within one of three categories.
- Non-restricted: e.g. most hunting and sporting rifles
- Restricted: e.g. some sporting handguns
- Prohibited: automatic weapons, most handguns.
Before attempting to enter Canada with a firearm, you should determine how your firearm is classified by Canadian authorities. How your firearm is classified will determine whether it’s legal for you to bring into Canada, and what conditions you must adhere to.
If you are a visitor, you must fill out a Non-Resident Firearms Declaration form (RCMP 5589). You will be charged a fee of 25 CAN.
To possess a firearm as a temporary or permanent resident, you’ll need to apply for a Possession and Acquisition License (PAL).
You require an Authorization to Transport (ATT) to bring a restricted firearm into the country.
Food, plant, and animal products
- You are legally required to declare all food, plant, and animal products you bring into Canada. For example:
- live animals (including pets) and animal products, such as cooked or raw meats, hides, skins, trophies, milk, fat, butter, cheese, eggs, fish, seafood; and
- plant products, such as fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, trees, houseplants, wood (and wood products such as furniture, carvings, bark), firewood, roots, vines, herbs, flowers, insects, bulbs, soil.)
Failure to declare or provide the relevant permits permits/certificates can lead to:
- detention of your products;
- a penalty up to 1300 CAN; and/or
- prosecution.
Gifts
According to CBSA, you must declare all gifts..
Their policy on duty fees are as follows
- You can bring in gifts worth 60 CAN or less each duty-free and tax-free
- You may have to pay duties and taxes on any gift having a value in excess of 60 CAN
- You may not import tobacco or alcohol as gifts.
Animals
You must declare any animal you are travelling with.
Some examples of animals you must declare include, but are not limited to
- Dogs;
- Domestic cats;
- Parrots;
- Lizards;
- Turtles;
- Snakes; and
- Small wild cats.
Declaring an animal does not guarantee that it will be allowed to enter the country.
You are responsible for ensuring that you adhere to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
If you fail to declare an animal, officers may detain your animal and/or deny you entry.
Currency or financial instruments in excess of 10,000 CAN.
Although you may legally bring any amount of money into Canada, you must declare any money or monetary instruments, such as stocks, cheques, bank drafts, or bonds valued at a total of 10,000 CAN at the border before being allowed to enter Canada.
You can declare your funds in one of the following ways.
- an airport kiosk;
- on your CBSA declaration card (if one was provided to you);
- through your advance declaration; or
- as part of your verbal declaration to a border services officer.
CBSA has the authority to seize all currency and monetary instruments if you fail to report their entire value.
Failing to declare these items can have consequences and result in you being unable to enter Canada.
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What items are illegal to bring into Canada?
You should not attempt to enter Canada with:
- cannabis or cannabis-contained products;
- illegal drugs;
- prohibited firearms or other prohibited weapons;
- sick animals;
- endangered species, or parts from endangered species; or
- any package whose contents are uncertain to you.
Cannabis and cannabis containing products
Despite being legal to purchase and consume in Canada, it is illegal to bring any form of cannabis into the country.
This includes products derived from cannabis such as CBD oil, or foods containing THC.
If you are travelling with a market approved prescription drug containing cannabis (e.g., Epidiolex, Sativex), you are permitted to do so under a travel class exemption.
If you are using other cannabis products for medical purposes, you can only bring those into Canada if you obtain an individual exemption issued by Health Canada.
Illegal drugs
Under no circumstances should you attempt to bring illegal drugs into Canada.
Travelling with drugs across the border can result in a sentence ranging anywhere from one year to life imprisonment.
Canada’s Criminal Code lists schedules of illegal drugs.
Prohibited firearms/weapons
Weapons are often prohibited due to them being easy to conceal e.g. switchblades, or capable of harming many people at once, such as automatic firearms.
Regardless of what license you hold, or the weapon’s status in your home country, you cannot bring a prohibited firearm or weapon into Canada.
Endangered species/sick animals
Animals that could spread diseases and threaten the natural Canadian ecosystems are prohibited from entering the country.
Canada has strict laws against trading in engendered species or parts from endangered species. For example, attempting to transport even a part of one (e.g. rhinoceros’ horn) could leave you with a fine of up to 250,000 CAN.
Packages with uncertain contents
Do not under any circumstances attempt to bring a package into Canada without knowing what is inside.
Even if a friend or relative asks you to carry something across the border, you will assume responsibility for it once the item is in your possession.
This means if the package contains something illegal (e.g., drugs), you will face the relevant criminal charges even if you don’t know what is inside.
Keep in mind that some criminals will hide drugs or other illegal items in otherwise innocuous objects.
What items are subject to duty and taxes?
Sales tax and duty
When you bring items into Canada, those items may be subject to sales tax and/or duty.
In general, when you import an item into Canada, you will have to pay the appropriate sales tax based on the market value of the item. There are some scenarios in which you won’t have to pay sales tax, namely
- When you first move to Canada; or
- When the value of the items you are bringing in fall under your personal exemption (see below).
For some items, you may be required to pay duty – additional import taxes which can vary based on what the item is and what country it came from. Some items are not subject to duty.
Although sales tax and duty are both assessed as part of going through Canadian customs, they are different forms of taxes – it’s possible that you may owe sales tax but no duty, or duty but no sales tax.
Alcohol and Tobacco
The tables below show the amounts of alcohol you can bring into Canada free of duty and taxes, under certain circumstances.
Newcomers can bring one of the following amounts in upon arriving in Canada duty and tax free.
Returning visitors, temporary residents, permanent residents, and Canadian citizens can only benefit from this exemption if it has been more than 48 hours since they left Canada.
| Product | Metric | Imperial | Estimates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wine | Up to 1.5 litres of wine | Up to 53 fluid ounces | Two 750ml bottles of wine |
| Alcoholic beverages e.g. liquor/spirit | Up to 1.14 litres | Up to 40 fluid ounces | One large standard bottle of liquor/spirit |
| Beer or ale | Up to 8.5 litres | Up to 287 fluid ounces | Approximately 24 cans or bottles (355ml each) of beer, ale, or cider |
Source: CBSA
If the amount of alcohol you want to import exceeds your personal exemption, you will be required to pay the duty and taxes as well as any provincial or territorial levies that apply.
Tobacco
To determine the amount of tobacco you can bring in legally and/or duty-free, you must calculate the number of CBSA tobacco units.
The following table presents quantities of different types of tobacco, each of which counts as one tobacco unit.
| Product | Amount per unit |
|---|---|
| Cigarettes | 200 cigarettes |
| Cigars | 50 cigars |
| Tobacco | 200 grams (7 ounces) of manufactured tobacco |
| Tobacco sticks | 200 tobacco sticks |
Source: CBSA
As part of (or all of) your personal exemption, you can bring up to five units of tobacco into Canada without having to pay tax and duty.
To import these amounts of tobacco under your personal exemption, it must be stamped “duty paid Canada droit acquitté”. Unstamped tobacco will be subject to a special duty rate.
You can bring more than five units of stamped tobacco, but you will have to pay the regular duties and taxes, as well as any provincial or territorial levies that apply on the excess amount.
If the tobacco is unstamped and/or unpackaged, you can only bring up to five units.
Additional personal exemptions
Both temporary and permanent residents and citizens of Canada can also claim a personal exemption to bring back goods duty and tax free.
| Time spent outside Canada before returning | Personal exemptions | Additional conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Returning after 24-48 hours | You can claim goods of up to 200 CAN without paying any duty and taxes. | You must have the goods with you when you enter Canada. Tobacco products* and alcoholic beverages are not included in this exemption. If the goods you bring in are worth more than 200 CAN in total, you cannot claim this exemption. You have to pay full duties on all goods you bring in. |
| Returning after 48 hours or more | You can claim goods worth up to 800 CAN without paying any duty and taxes. | You must have the goods with you when you enter Canada. |
| Returning after 7 days or more | You can claim goods worth up to 800 CAN without paying any duty and taxes. | You must have any tobacco products and alcoholic beverages with you when you enter Canada, but the rest of the goods can arrive later, as goods to follow. |
| Part of the year outside Canada. | You can claim goods worth up to CAN800 without paying any duty and taxes. Some tobacco products* and alcoholic beverages may be included in your personal exemption. | When you import foreign goods or vehicles for your personal use in Canada you must meet all import requirements and pay all applicable duty and taxes. |
If you’ve been out of Canada for less than a 24 hour period, you do not get any personal exemptions, and will owe full tax and duty on whatever you bring back.
NOTE: If you include cigarettes, tobacco sticks, or manufactured tobacco in your personal exemption, you may only receive a partial exemption.
If you’ve been out of the country for 48 hours or more, and bring in more than your personal exemption, you will have to pay regular tax and/or duty on the excess amount.
Failing to declare these items can have consequences and result in you being unable to enter Canada.
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