Exiled in Express

I made my first international return without being scared of the import duty and I am only left with more questions. I arrived at PHX with 3 liters of tequila which I made known at both immigration and customs. Customs told me not to do it again which I initially thought was a joking way of approaching his desire to avoid the paperwork. I asked what the duty would be for future trips and again told not to do it again with an explanation that Arizona does not allow CBP to collect the duty and per the letter of the law I should be forced to dispose of the excess.

First is this true? I am having some difficulty grasping a state preventing the federal government from collecting a federal tax.

Second, is there a list of these local restrictions by port of entry? DFW and JFK are in my next ports so particularly curious about those before I buy a case of wine.

CKDGM

The actual issue is that CBP is tasked with also enforcing state laws on liquor importation, and you were in violation of ARS 4-244.02(A)3.

http://www.azliquor.gov/LiquorLaws/V...cfm?TitleID=61

The Arizona import limit is the duty free amount unless you are returning from overseas military service.

There does not appear to be a centralized list of state laws on liquor import.

Randyk47

Texas has its own import limitations which are probably driven by its shared border with Mexico. http://www.tabc.state.tx.us/faq/pers...mportation.asp Way too complicated, time consuming, and occasionally dangerous to cross into Mexico for my taste but back in the day when we lived in El Paso my father used to fill the trunk of our car with liquor in Juarez.

FlyingHoustonian

TABC has booths (not always staffed) at the main land borders and they stop and check bags coming over from Mexico and charge for the tax stamps. I've never seen nor heard of CBP trying to do it at the airports in Texas but presume they could.

I had Uncle Sam ship a large amount of liquor back from Germany once and the rule was it had to be in separate boxes and technically imported by a licensed Texas liquor license and then delivered to me. Still at no charge though-one of the few nice perks left ^

Randyk47

I don't recall any questions when we reentered the US through DFW a couple of years ago. We didn't have GE back then so went through the whole process. Had flown an AA LHR-DFW but had nothing significant to declare so we moved through Immigration and Customs pretty smoothly. The only time I remember the Texas limitations coming up was a cruise out and in of Galveston 10 years ago and we were questioned then. I don't recall if it was a Texas agent or CBP. The ship did hand out a notice that Texas limitations were different than the US. We drove from San Antonio to Galveston for that trip but we rarely bother with spirits of any kind on a vacation OCONUS mostly because of the hassle with carry-on limitations.

Section 107

My father-in-law-to-be gave me and my then-fiancée about 10 litres of tequila for the wedding which we brought with us through IAH. In addition I had picked up a couple of bottles of other aperitifs and liqueurs found only in Mexico. Since we were already under additional scrutiny due to the visa process I figured this was no time to forget to mention being slightly over the duty-free limit. Probably because our final destination was not TX CBP did not say anything about Texas rules.

But even more nicely, after figuring out the total volume of alcohol and calculating the tax for it they had a brief conference and then said brightly: "Congratulations on your upcoming wedding. Have a nice day," and released us without charging any taxes.

was a heckuva party.......

Flaneurs

So now I am really confused. If Mrs. Flaneurs and I want to bring a case of wine back from Europe can we do it? Obviously we know we will be over the duty free limits and would declare and pay any duty requested. We will be going through customs in JFK but then changing airlines and flying to Montana. Do we need to look up the rules for MT, NY or is it just the Federal Government? Is it all the above that can regulate it? Thanks for the help in advance. I thought we wouldn't have any problems as long as we were honest but this thread got me thinking about state laws potentially trumping federal laws.

ubernostrum

You need to look up each individual state.

This is a weird exception to the normal rule. Article I of the federal Constitution gives to Congress the power to "regulate interstate commerce", which has been interpreted mostly as exclusively reserving that power to the federal level (with some common-sense exceptions).

However... once upon a time, we experimented with a nationwide prohibition on alcohol, which was set up by the 18th Amendment. That was later repealed by the 21st Amendment. But the 21st Amendment went slightly farther than that: in order to preserve the right for states to continue banning alcohol on a state-by-state basis, it explicitly granted states the power to pass laws regulating the importation of alcohol.

Which means that in the unique case of alcohol, states have essentially unlimited power to control and regulate the types, quantities, etc. that you can bring in. Which in turn means that you need to comply not just with federal rules on what you can bring into the United States, but also for alcohol you have to comply with the rules of each individual state into which you plan to bring the alcohol. This ranges from fairly liberal (many states) to moderate regulation (some states) to pretty extreme restrictions on alcohol coming from outside the state (see: Pennsylvania).

clarence5ybr

ubernostrum is correct that you technically need to obey both the laws of NY and MT. However, in nearly all circumstances you will experience on your trip, NY is the only one that matters.

CBP is tasked with enforcing the rules of the state you will be entering, so in my experience, they don't care about where you're off to next. Since you clear customs at JFK, your flight to MT will be domestic, and there will be no customs inspection when you land. Technically, I suppose MT would be within their rights to have someone at the airport to question people on incoming flights about alcohol, but have you ever seen that happen?

Flaneurs

Thank you ubernostrum. So, in my proposed scenario of us bringing back a case of wine, we need to comply with the New York law (which looks like anything over 1 litre requires the filing of a MT-39 Tax Form and the payment of excise tax in the amount of .079 per litre), Montana law which is totally unclear, and Federal which looks like it wouldn't be a problem. There is lots of misinformation out there on this subject and I have found very contradictory summaries of the laws. It appears TSA doesn't care how much wine you bring as long as it is not in the cabin (then 3oz rule applies) and then there are of course carrier specific rules which may further regulate things beyond the simple weight/piece concepts.

I am getting the feeling that I will not be bringing back the case of wine unless I have the desire to hire a couple of importation attorneys so sort out all the complications in the laws and fill out the paperwork required.

In the end I guess it is an extremely complicated answer to a fairly simple question.

Flaneurs

Thanks also to clarence5ybr. I didn't see your response until after my post was made. Does anyone have any experience with bringing a case of wine into New York from Europe (Switzerland)? I would be very curious if CBP really makes you fill out the New York tax form and collects the meagher amount of tax due or if they typically wave you through as you have declared it and not attempted to hide anything.

brooklynflyer82

Flaneurs - i recently brought 3 cases of wine with me from New Zealand back to NY through JFK. (Flew in on a flight from ICN - JFK so cleared customs at JFK). For what it is worth i have global entry. I did declare my 3 cases of wine and was just told to have a nice day.

CO FF

Same - brought 2 cases of wine back CDG-JFK, and after they did the math they waived me through without charge...

VibeGuy

I have entered at JFK with onward domestic segments, with several cases of wine and spirits, on multiple occasions, and never been charged duty.

bhomburg

Same here. Always got the "have a nice day - no charge" treatment at customs when declaring alcohol at any gateway I entered, be that JFK, MIA, DFW, LAX or DTW.