Cancún Travel Forum

How much alcohol am I allowed to bring home? Of course the bottles will be sealed, because their mostly gifts for friends. What happens if I bring to much?
Thanks.

For Mexico for a US citizen it is $800 exemption for gifts and personal articles, including one liter of alcoholic beverages per person over 21 every 30 days provided it does not violate the laws of the state in which you arrive.

This is from the DHS website. http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacation/kbyg/paying_duty.xml

Federal regulations allow you to bring back more than one liter of alcoholic beverage for personal use, but, as with extra tobacco, you will have to pay duty and Internal Revenue Service tax.

While Federal regulations do not specify a limit on the amount of alcohol you may bring back for personal use, unusual quantities are liable to raise suspicions that you are importing the alcohol for other purposes, such as for resale. CBP officers are authorized by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to make on-the-spot determinations that an importation is for commercial purposes, and may require you to obtain a permit to import the alcohol before releasing it to you. If you intend to bring back a substantial quantity of alcohol for your personal use, you should contact the port through which you will be re-entering the country, and make prior arrangements for entering the alcohol into the United States.

Also, you should be aware that state laws might limit the amount of alcohol you can bring in without a license. If you arrive in a state that has limitations on the amount of alcohol you may bring in without a license, that state law will be enforced by CBP, even though it may be more restrictive than federal regulations. We recommend that you check with the state government before you go abroad about their limitations on quantities allowed for personal importation and additional state taxes that might apply.

In brief, for both alcohol and tobacco, the quantities discussed in this booklet as being eligible for duty-free treatment may be included in your $800 or $1,600 exemption, just as any other purchase would be. But unlike other kinds of merchandise, amounts beyond those discussed here as being duty-free are taxed, even if you have not exceeded, or even met, your personal exemption. For example, if your exemption is $800 and you bring back three liters of wine and nothing else, two of those liters will be dutiable. Federal law prohibits shipping alcoholic beverages by mail within the United States.

Incidentally with reference to how much is a litre -- booze in the U.S. was most commonly bottled in quarts and "fifths." A quart is one quarter of a gallon, and a fifth is -- you guessed it -- a fifth of a gallon. Now, liquor comes in one-liter and 750-ml bottles, which are about the same size as the quart and fifth, respectively.

A 750-ml bottle -- the most common size for wine -- is 0.750 liter. In other words, it's three quarters of a liter (because 3/4 = 0.75).

One fifth of a US gallon is 25.6 ounces, and 0.75 liter equals 25.4 ounces, so a 750-ml bottle is very close to a fifth.