Customs In Tampa

[mongo85]

HOW MUCH RUM CAN I BRING INTO TAMPA FOR PERSONAL USE?

LEGALLY.:o

[Tanker4]

As much as you want but you may have to pay duty on anything over one liter PP I believe. (If purchased in the US territories it's a larger amount)

[fann1sh]

deleted

[RoofingPrincess]

The per-person limit depends on where you go and what you buy. When our ship went to the Eastern Caribbean, I believe the limit was 4 liters per person, with an extra liter if it was produced in the US Virgin Islands?

 

I found this on the site of A H Riise Stores in the Virgin Islands:

U.S. residents 21 years of age and older can return to the mainland with four litres of liquor, duty free. Add a 5th litre duty free if it is a product made in the U.S. Virgin Islands! Compare this to the one-litre-per-person duty free limit outside the U.S. territory, including stores on board cruise ships.

 

This matches up with what I remember... I tried to confirm it on an official government site, but cbp.gov is really hard to navigate!

[mongo85]

The per-person limit depends on where you go and what you buy. When our ship went to the Eastern Caribbean, I believe the limit was 4 liters per person, with an extra liter if it was produced in the US Virgin Islands?

 

I found this on the site of A H Riise Stores in the Virgin Islands:

U.S. residents 21 years of age and older can return to the mainland with four litres of liquor, duty free. Add a 5th litre duty free if it is a product made in the U.S. Virgin Islands! Compare this to the one-litre-per-person duty free limit outside the U.S. territory, including stores on board cruise ships.

 

This matches up with what I remember... I tried to confirm it on an official government site, but cbp.gov is really hard to navigate!

Yes the government site is very hard to navigate.

The reason I ask is when we came in to the port of Galveston the US customs official told me I was allowed only 1 liter of rum in the state of Texas [i had 8:D ] he let me go with my 8 but I dont want to have to give away 7 bottles if I dont have to.

[6rugrats]

Yes the government site is very hard to navigate.

The reason I ask is when we came in to the port of Galveston the US customs official told me I was allowed only 1 liter of rum in the state of Texas [i had 8:D ] he let me go with my 8 but I dont want to have to give away 7 bottles if I dont have to.

 

Laws for Texas are different. You don't have to give them away. You simply must pay the duty and tax for anything over the duty free limit (which as mentioned, may be higher depending where you purchased the alcohol):

 

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.

 

Link to government webpage explaining this policy:

 

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacation/kbyg/paying_duty.xml

[KreinKrunker]

The following is off page 18, from "Know Before You Go", from the US Customs and Border Protection Division of Homeland Security.

 

http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/newsroom/publications/travel/knowbeforeyougo.ctt/knowbeforeyougo.pdf

 

$1,600 Exemption

If you return directly or indirectly from a U.S. insular

possession (U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, or

Guam), you are allowed a $1,600 duty-free exemption.

If you travel to a U.S. insular possession and to one

or more of the Caribbean Basin or Andean countries

listed above, let’s say on a Caribbean cruise, you may

bring back $1,600 worth of items without paying

duty, but only $800 worth of these items may come

from the Caribbean Basin or Andean country(ies).

Any amount beyond $800 will be dutiable unless

you acquired it in one of the insular possessions. For

example, if you were to travel to the U.S. Virgin

Islands and Jamaica, you would be allowed to bring

back $1,600 worth of merchandise duty free, as long

as only $800 worth was acquired in Jamaica.

Also, you may include 1,000 cigarettes as part of the

$1600 exemption, but at least 800 of them must have

been acquired in an insular possession. Only 200 cigarettes

may have been acquired elsewhere. For example,

if you were touring the South Pacific and you stopped

in Tahiti, American Samoa, and other ports of call,

you could bring back five cartons of cigarettes, but

four of them would have to have been bought in

American Samoa.

Similarly, you may include five liters of alcoholic

beverages in your duty-free exemption, but one of

them must be a product of an insular possession. Four

may be products of other countries (see section on

[dforeigner]

Laws for Texas are different. You don't have to give them away. You simply must pay the duty and tax for anything over the duty free limit (which as mentioned, may be higher depending where you purchased the alcohol):

 

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.

 

Link to government webpage explaining this policy:

 

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacation/kbyg/paying_duty.xml

 

Actually, you do have to either destroy it, surrender or take the excess liquor back when it comes to re-entering the US via Texas. Unless you have an import license. This is separate from what the Federal Government allows you to do.

 

http://www.tabc.state.tx.us/help/poe.htm

[dforeigner]

If you are a

Texas resident

(including persons in the armed forces stationed in Texas), the maximum quantity of alcoholic beverages that you can bring back into Texas is:

1 quart of distilled spirits

3 gallons of wine and

24 twelve-ounce containers of beer.

If you are a

nonresident of Texas

, the maximum quantity of alcoholic beverages that you can bring back into Texas is:

1 gallon of distilled spirits or wine (or any combination of the two)

and 24 twelve-ounce containers of beer.

Please remember that there can be no substitutions between the types of beverages. Also, the importation of alcoholic beverages must be for personal consumption and they cannot occur more than once in a 30-day period. The person making the importation must accompany the alcoholic beverages. Minors (persons under 21 years of age) or intoxicated persons

may not

bring alcoholic beverages into Texas under this provision.

 

1. What happens if I bring in more alcoholic beverages than my allowed limit?
    
   
   Our Taxpayer Compliance Officers are authorized to seize and destroy alcoholic beverages over the importation limits as well as those in the possession of minors or intoxicated persons. Cigarettes in the possession of persons under the age of 18 will also be confiscated and destroyed.

[smeyer418]

actually under federal law for cigs its illegal to re import more than 1 carton made in the US per person(over 18). Anything more than that technically is to be confiscated. But most of the time they don't look that closely.

 

http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/newsroom/publications/travel/knowbeforeyougo.ctt/knowbeforeyougo.pdf

 

see page 24