Bringing home booze

I'm pretty sure there is no limit. You basically pay the local liquor tax I believe, but I could be wrong. However, use your best judgment. If you bring home a lot you coudl invite some questions from Customs as to why.

Check to see what it would cost you to buy it here before you go. The dollar is so weak you may not save much buying it overseas. Then check with Customs and ask them how much is the duty on alcohol.

Then do the math.

OK, at the risk of contributing to the delinquency of minors -- I always pack the bottles in our luggage (meaning a bottle in my bag, a bottle in my 9 year old's bag, a bottle in my 7 year old's bags). I'm not disputing that the law says per 21 year old passenger, I just know that customs has never said anything, even when they search our bags.

You can bring back one liter of alcohol duty free to the US per passenger over 21. However due to the restrictions on liquids in carry-on luggage, if it is not bought past security in a duty free shop it MUST be packed in your checked luggage. Technically they can charge you if you go over your limit but most of the time they don't bother.

How much charge are we talking about? And if I don't mind paying the charge, is there a limit on how many I can bring (like 3 or 4 bottles of scotch)?

Last October coming home from Europe many people were caught out with their Duty free alcohol. Even though they had passed through security then purchased their dutyfree alcohol they still had to pass another security checkpoint upon entering the plane. People were not allowed to take their bottles onto the plane, they were put to one side where they were then put into the hold. Only good luck if they survived the trip.

It's getting more complicated. Unless the booze is in your checked luggage, you can't bring it through security. Duty free isn't much of a deal. And recently, when we came home through Phoenix, Arizona they had warnings that state law prohibited more than one liter per adult. I didn't find out if the law was enforced by US Customs but if I had brought a bottle of Scotch and some wine, I would have been in trouble. So check the rules at your airports, too.

Kelley: are you saying that you put 1 bottle in each persons bag because you are only allowed one bottle per person?

Doug: Thank you.

The limit is 1 liter per adult as part of your exemption (dollar amount varies by country). If you bring back more than one liter, you will have to pay duty on it regardless of your overall purchases. Anything you bring back has to conform to other laws (i.e. no cuban cigars).

I found the info on www.CBP.gov under OFO (office of field operations, used to be called customs) clicked on the know before you go electronic publication.

There is a combined family exemption, so it doesn't have to be in separate checked bags if you are a family. Two liters for two adults is duty free. Kids aren't supposed to have an exemption but each customs officer uses some judgement.

You can always bring more but have to pay the duty. I don't know what the duty is. I've never hit the limit.

Getting something from a duty free shop isn't much of a souvenir, much better to buy something you like at a small distillery that would be hard to find at home.

I'm not sure breweries distribute six-packs like we do, I always just get whatever the local draft is and don't bring any home.

Friends have brought home cases that are packaged in plastic crates (along the lines of milk crates) but you really aren't intended to keep those.

I actually recieved a 4-pack brought to me by a family member from Germany last year. I believe it was Halston beer. When I lived there you could bring as much as you could hold in your carry-on but that was pre 911 of course. I brought many bottles of beer home for folks to try. Two of us are going so I think I will try 1 or 2 bottles of scotch each and maybe a 4-pack of beer. Thanks for the help.

With respect to airport duty free, you can bring back your one liter via airport dutyfree only if you have no connecting flight in the US after hitting customs and immigration in the first US city you touch down in. Since airport dutyfree is after you check your bags, it exceeds the 3 ounce limit for the later domestic flight you'll be taking. But if you have a nonstop to your final US destination, the dutyfree purchase is fine.

I understand, Rob, that you are mainly interested in buying outside airport dutyfree, so this doesn't pertain directly to you. But for those used to the traditional "pick up a bottle at dutyfree" folks, you should be aware of the fact that dutyfree is only practical if you have a nonstop flight.

At the Venice airport,we read signs saying how much duty free alcohol you could buy.So we bought 1 bottle and they put it in the special clear bag they said we could carry on. No sooner had we made our purchase and stood in line to go through security, it was taken away from us!Our Bellini didn't make it out of the same airport we bought it from!

Greetings

For Scotch and the like, it's worth doing a little research as many brands are available in the US and cheaper thanks to mass imports. You don't want to go through the hassle if you can get it at duty free or a shop in the US. Best to only bring stuff if it's an exotic brand that you can't get in the US.

Kate

Rob, your main concern here should be getting your purchases home unbroken. The duty, should any be assessed, would be so small as to be not even be a consideration. I can't speak for reentering the US at other ports, but at SeaTac airport I have returned with at least 24 bottles of wine packed carefully in the luggage including in the children's bags, declared it all, and the US customs agents are not interested in this issue at all. I've never paid duty or even been asked a question. Others may have different experiences. Just pack your bottles in your clothes and don't worry about it.

Doug: Last year when we went to be honest I didn't even pay attention to the rules, my husband's checked bag had a bottle of schnapps and a bottle of wine and so did mine. Judging by the unfolded, scattered remains of our luggage, it was searched thoroughly and all returned. The year before there were two bottles in each of the kid's checked bags and two in mine -- again, bags were searched and no one said anything. When my sister was in college in England (5 yrs ago) we did the same thing going into London with bottles of Gentleman Jack. I don't know if I'm just insanely lucky or operating inside the rules.

Neil, How recent are you talking about? Post 911?

Thanks for the response.

Hi again, Rob: All of our travels have been since summer of 2002. Same story all five times coming back through customs at SeaTac..they do not generally appear to be interested in tourist-trade swag. Should a US customs agent choose to charge us duty on alcohol, it would only be 3% of the value. Accordingly, the amount of wine I bring home is limited only by the maximum weight of luggage the airline will allow without an added charge (70 lbs so far) and the degree to which I can stuff the children's suitcases with wine before their protests can be detected with my limited hearing range. I consider it a character builder.

I made a suitcase specifically for bringing home wine. It holds 12 bottles and is carry on size, although I always check it. It has been searched several times and nothing is missing, broken or questioned.

I think if you buy duty free alcohol, you cannot carry it through security. They have to bring it to you after you are on the plane. Also, I just researched this for a trip I recently took, and it does look like that only works for a non-stop flight from the E.U. to the U.S. If you have to go through security here for a connecting domestic flight all liquids have to be less than 3 oz. and in a baggy.

When I was in Europe this past July, I brought home 7 bottles of wine in my checked luggage. I declared everything I had purchased--wine, souveniers, etc. The customs officer at Chicago O'Hare took the declaration form without even looking at it and passed me through. I barely stopped passing through customs. Everyone in line was being passed through that way. I don't know if this was the exception or the rule, but I think customs has bigger things to worry about than whether a tourist is carrying more than one bottle of alcohol.

If you are on a connecting flight home, you also have to worry about theft of the liquor from your luggage. We had an expensive bottle of cognac stolen from a checked bag last year on a connection in Chicago from Paris to Dallas. Someone also broke the TSA lock on my checked bag, but nothing was stolen from mine. My husband now refuses to take any connecting flights to/from Europe! I guess he's planning to replace that cognac this year.