When calculating the number of days away, the date of departure from Canada is not included,

but the date of return is. A personal exemption can be used any number of times throughout 

the year, however, personal exemptions cannot be combined with, or transferred to another 

person.

All alcohol and tobacco products must accompany you in your hand or checked luggage and 

must be marked “CANADA DUTY PAID • DROIT ACQUITTÉ”. One will find Canadian-made

products sold at a duty-free shop marked this way.

Gifts

While you are outside Canada, you can send gifts free of duty and taxes to friends within

Canada. To qualify, each gift must not be worth more than CAN$60 and cannot be a tobacco

product, an alcoholic beverage or advertising matter. If the gift does not qualify, the recipient 

will have to pay regular duties and taxes on the excess amounts. Gifts that you send from 

outside Canada do not count as part of your personal exemption, but gifts that are brought 

back in personal luggage do count against your exemption limits.

Prohibited or restricted goods

The following items are prohibited or subject to import restrictions:

• Firearms

• Replica firearms

• Explosives, fireworks, and ammunition

• Vehicles, import restrictions apply mostly to used or second-hand vehicles that are not

manufactured in the current year and imported from a country other than the United 

States

• Food products

• Animals, plants, and their products

• Endangered species

• Cultural property

• Prohibited consumer products, as outlined by Health Canada

• Health products (prescription drugs)

• Used or second hand mattresses

• Goods subject to import controls

• Posters and handbills depicting scenes of crime or violence

• Photographic, film, video or other visual representations that are child pornography under

the Criminal Code

• Books, printed paper, drawings, paintings, prints, photographs or representations of any

kind that, under the Criminal Code:

• are deemed to be obscene

• constitute hate propaganda

• are of treasonable character, or

• are of a seditious character.

Personal Imports  /  155

Current as of June 30, 2013

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affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.