Canadian Import Advice Help - Tax was 200%!

[Dshift]

12 years ago I was super excited to go live in the US for a couple of years , but now reading stuff like this , I have to be honest - you guys live in a crazy county

 

[bootlegpipes]

12 years ago I was super excited to go live in the US for a couple of years , but now reading stuff like this , I have to be honest - you guys live in a crazy county

Crazy country referring to US or Canada? (Both is also an acceptable answer!)

 

[Olkofri]

All countries are crazy now as things spiral with increasing speed down the drain towards maximum entropy. It's just that the guest notices things faster than the tenant.

 

[Cubatogo]

From the interwebs….:

There are no recent, broad changes to Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) duty-free allowances for tobacco products for travellers returning to Canada, as of September 2025. Travellers can still bring the standard duty-free amounts, such as 200 cigarettes or 50 cigars, as part of their personal exemption, provided the products are stamped "duty paid Canada droit acquitté" or you pay special duties on unstamped products. However, a new surtax announced in April 2025 applies to certain U.S. goods that exceed personal exemptions, but this does not directly impact tobacco import regulations for travellers.

Personal Exemptions for Tobacco
If you have been away from Canada for 48 hours or more, you can bring the following duty-free amounts of tobacco: 200 cigarettes, 50 cigars, 200 grams (7 ounces) of manufactured tobacco, and 200 tobacco sticks.

Special Duty on Stamped vs. Unstamped Products

• "Duty paid Canada droit acquitté" Stamp:
  Tobacco sold at duty-free shops or Canadian-made products with this mark are exempt from duty and taxes within your personal exemption.
• Unstamped Products:
  If you bring in unstamped tobacco, you will be assessed a special duty rate on the entire amount claimed as part of your exemption, not just the excess over the limit.

Are you sure it can be interpreted as

 

[Cubatogo]

Are you sure it can be interpreted as 200 cigarettes AND 50 cigars AND 200 grams manufactured tobacco AND 200 tobacco sticks? It’s seems CBSA has reworded it and as before you could bring in (after 48 hours) 50 cigars and 200 grams of manufactured tobacco…It has now been changed to either one or the other but not both without incurring the penalties. Plus if you bring in 50 cigars which exceeds the $800 CAD exchange rate you get dinged bigly. For instance a box of Cohiba Robustos from Cuba costs approx $1750 US….coming into Canada CBSA will now calculate the exchange to CAD ($2500) and you’re way above the $800 exemption. Get the wrong CBSA guy and of ooof you’re gonna pay!

 

[Cubatogo]

Are you sure it can be interpreted as 200 cigarettes AND 50 cigars AND 200 grams manufactured tobacco AND 200 tobacco sticks? It’s seems CBSA has reworded it and as before you could bring in (after 48 hours) 50 cigars and 200 grams of manufactured tobacco…It has now been changed to either one or the other but not both without incurring the penalties. Plus if you bring in 50 cigars which exceeds the $800 CAD exchange rate you get dinged bigly. For instance a box of Cohiba Robustos from Cuba costs approx $1750 US….coming into Canada CBSA will now calculate the exchange to CAD ($2500) and you’re way above the $800 exemption. Get the wrong CBSA guy and ooof you’re gonna pay!

 

[AJL67]

Votes have consequences.

 

[theTomTom]

Are you sure it can be interpreted as 200 cigarettes AND 50 cigars AND 200 grams manufactured tobacco AND 200 tobacco sticks? It’s seems CBSA has reworded it and as before you could bring in (after 48 hours) 50 cigars and 200 grams of manufactured tobacco…It has now been changed to either one or the other but not both without incurring the penalties. Plus if you bring in 50 cigars which exceeds the $800 CAD exchange rate you get dinged bigly. For instance a box of Cohiba Robustos from Cuba costs approx $1750 US….coming into Canada CBSA will now calculate the exchange to CAD ($2500) and you’re way above the $800 exemption. Get the wrong CBSA guy and ooof you’re gonna pay!

Ahh the fun of living in a country like canada..

But seriously, its about time that old penpal thing was revived and holiday care packages to boot.

 

[rokerdepipe]

After being out of the country for 48 hours or more, you can bring the following amounts of tobacco into Canada duty-free, provided you are at least 18 years of age:

• 200 cigarettes (one carton) AND
• 50 cigars AND
• 200 grams (7 ounces) of manufactured tobacco AND
• 200 tobacco sticks.

These limits are part of your personal exemption, which allows you to bring back up to CAN$800 worth of goods tax and duty-free.

Key rules for bringing back tobacco

• Must be with you: The tobacco products must be in your possession when you arrive in Canada.
• Declare everything: You must declare all tobacco products you have acquired outside of Canada, even if you are within your personal exemption limit. Failure to declare can result in seizure of the goods and potential fines.
• Excise stamps: For tobacco products to be included in your duty-free exemption, the packages must be stamped "DUTY PAID CANADA DROIT ACQUITTÉ".
• Unstamped tobacco: If you bring back tobacco that is not stamped, it will be subject to a special duty rate, even if you are within your personal exemption amount.
• Exceeding the limit: If you bring back more than the duty-free allowance, you will be required to pay the regular duties, taxes, and applicable provincial levies on the excess amount.

So with the aforementioned in mind, this is the current state of affairs. You cannot go over the $800.00 (this includes if you bought shoes, clothing, sports equipment, whatever).

The other thing is that the tobacco must be stamped. If it’s not, you may be permitted to bring it across the border, but you will be subject to special duty assessments.

 

[woodsroad]

Hello all,

I haven't ever smoked a pipe before so decided to give the hobby a try by ordering a selection of pipe tobacco from the USA (just the top brands for each type to give them a try - aromatics, English etc.) along with 1 estate pipe. It was roughly $300 CAD for the tobacco and $100 for the pipe.

I have been eagerly awaiting my shipment and thought the duty taxes would be like $50-$100. Oh my God I was wrong. They are trying to charge me $600. In what world is the tax 200% more than the product? The breakdown is:

$188 duties
$30 GST
$385 PST
$9.95 handling

My question is, have any other Canadians experienced this? This is absolutely insane. Is this correct? I live in Alberta where we don't even have PST but the lady on the phone explained it's some other tobacco tax they put in that slot for Alberta anyway.

Now I have to refuse my goods and lose my estate pipe and basically give up the hobby. Just thought I'd ask here as I remember Canadians on here recommending 4Noggins before so clearly some people do import... how?!? why?!? 200%??

Vote.
If you already vote, but voted for the scoundrels that made this happen, vote for the other guy. Vote your own self-interest!

 

[Olkofri]

Pfft. Even if voting did work, on the issue of tobacco and taxation up the wazoo, all of them guys are on the same side.

 

[theTomTom]

Vote.
If you already vote, but voted for the scoundrels that made this happen, vote for the other guy. Vote your own self-interest!

Funny how one party raises taxes on everything. UT the idiots who voted them in just blame the other parties for responsibility of it.

And voting just to make sure you have a low tobacco tax is childish.

 

[woodsroad]

Funny how one party raises taxes on everything. UT the idiots who voted them in just blame the other parties for responsibility of it.

And voting just to make sure you have a low tobacco tax is childish.

I can't think of a better motivation to vote than self interest. If a political party is happy to raise tobacco taxes/tariffs/duties to such extremes, you can be sure that you aren't going to like what else they do (as opposed to what they SAY they are going to do, or what they SAY that they stand for).

Meanwhile, I believe that in most provinces, you can still buy an SVT-40 rifle at a very reasonable price, something that we can't do here in the US. Go buy one...now.

Too late.

 

[theTomTom]

I can't think of a better motivation to vote than self interest. If a political party is happy to raise tobacco taxes/tariffs/duties to such extremes, you can be sure that you aren't going to like what else they do (as opposed to what they SAY they are going to do, or what they SAY that they stand for).

Meanwhile, I believe that in most provinces, you can still buy an SVT-40 rifle at a very reasonable price, something that we can't do here in the US. Go buy one...now.

Too late.

Have seen sometimes on an American retailer.

But buying one of those rifles is not fun as the cheap import ammo stopped in Biden days over ukraine

 

[woodsroad]

Have seen sometimes on an American retailer.

But buying one of those rifles is not fun as the cheap import ammo stopped in Biden days over ukraine

I bought an SVT-40 rearsenal years ago for the princely sum of $225. It is quite accurate and a pleasure to shoot. Yes, I bought a lot of surplus 7.62x54r back then. Some is quite good, some is mediocre, a little bit is click...bang. In the end, I mostly shoot handloads, since they are always rewardingly accurate. The days of pounding my shoulder through hundreds of rounds are well over!