How much you can bring back from the U.S. duty-free

You can bring back $200 of goods duty-free and tax-free after a trip of 24 hours or more, and $800 after a trip of 48 hours or more (the 7-day exemption is also $800). A day trip gets nothing: if you shop in Buffalo or Bellingham and are home by midnight, you owe duty and tax on everything you declare. With Black Friday on November 27, that's worth knowing before you cross.

This is Canada's "personal exemption", and it belongs to you alone. It is measured in Canadian dollars, it covers what you bought and what you were given, and it counts the price you paid including any foreign sales tax.

The three allowances

Days are counted from when you leave Canada to when you come back. For the 7-day exemption, the day you left doesn't count and the day you return does.

The 24-hour and 48-hour exemptions only cover goods that are with you when you arrive. The 7-day exemption is more flexible: apart from alcohol and tobacco, goods can follow you by mail or courier. Keep your receipts for hotels and purchases, because an officer can use them to check how long you were away and what you spent.

Alcohol and tobacco

Alcohol and tobacco only come with the 48-hour and 7-day exemptions, and you pick one of these for alcohol:

• up to 1.5 litres of wine
• up to 1.14 litres of spirits
• up to 8.5 litres of beer or ale

You must be at least the legal drinking age in the province you re-enter Canada through: 18 in Alberta, Manitoba and Québec, and 19 everywhere else. For tobacco you must be 18. Stamped tobacco (the package says "duty paid Canada droit acquitté") is duty-free up to 200 cigarettes, 50 cigars, 200 grams of manufactured tobacco or 200 tobacco sticks. Alcohol and tobacco must be in your hands when you arrive, even on a 7-day trip.

You can't stack or share exemptions

You can't combine your exemption with another person's, you can't pass yours to someone else, and you can't add two of your own together. Away for nine days? You get the 7-day exemption of $800. You don't get $800 plus another $800 for also having been away more than 48 hours. Children get their own exemption, as long as the goods are for the child to use.

What happens when you go over

The 24-hour trip is the harshest. If your goods come to more than $200, you can't claim that exemption at all, so duty and taxes apply to the entire amount, not only the part above $200. A $210 haul is taxed on all $210.

After 48 hours or 7 days, the rule is kinder. Duty and taxes apply only to the amount over $800. And if you were away 48 hours or more, CBSA gives you a reduced duty rate of 7% on up to $300 of goods above your exemption, as long as the goods are with you and aren't alcohol or tobacco. You still pay GST or HST on top, and in some provinces the CBSA collects provincial sales tax too.

Here's what it looks like for an Ontario shopper back from a long weekend (48 hours or more) with $1,100 of goods:

• Amount over the $800 exemption: $1,100 - $800 = $300
• Duty at 7%: $300 × 0.07 = $21.00
• HST at 13% on the goods plus duty: ($300 + $21) × 0.13 = $41.73
• Total owed: about $62.73

Duty varies by product, so your own number may differ, but the shape is the same. Now take someone who spent $350 on a trip of just over 24 hours. The $200 exemption disappears, so HST at 13% on all $350 comes to $45.50 before any duty. A $190 haul on the same trip would have cost nothing. Your province changes the bill: GST is 5%, and Ontario's HST is 13%.

Counter-tariffs on some U.S. goods

Canada also charges counter-tariffs on certain goods from the United States, and the CBSA's returning-traveller page links to that list. Whether a tariff applies to something in your suitcase is a separate question from the exemption, and Canooq's explainer on whether you'll pay Canada's retaliatory tariffs at the border answers it. To check a specific product before you buy it, use the tool below.

Declare your goods, and do it early if you fly

Declare everything you bought, wore or were given abroad, and report values in Canadian dollars, converted at the rate the CBSA recognizes. If you're flying home, you can fill in your declaration ahead of time through the ArriveCAN app. The Advance CBSA Declaration is optional, opens up to 72 hours before you land at participating airports, and means less time at the kiosk or eGate. It is for airports only, so it doesn't help at a land crossing.

If you're driving back from a shopping weekend, the cross-border trips guide shows how to plan the nights so you cross the 24-hour mark and the $200 exemption applies. Paying in U.S. dollars also matters, since the exchange rate comes off every receipt, and the cheapest way to convert USD to CAD is worth a read before you leave.