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Written by Mark Hicken
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Monday, 23 August 2010 15:32 |
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Today's Globe and Mail has a good opinion piece from Lysiane Gagnon entitled "Canada's Customs Inquisition". It deals with the problems travelers face when they honestly declare that they are bringing back more bottles of wine than their duty-free exemption allows. According to the article, such honesty can sometimes trigger secondary searches or other intense questioning. My personal experience has never been this bad, although I have had bizarre supplementary questions related to firearms (why would CBSA relate these two?). Generally though, the article makes a good point: why are our border agents acting as tax collectors for Canada's liquor boards? |
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Written by Mark Hicken
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Thursday, 29 July 2010 19:45 |
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The high fees that are charged at customs when you bring wine back into B.C. have gone down ever so slightly as a result of the introduction of the HST. However, the combined charges of liquor board markup and taxes still result in exceptionally high amounts if you are above your miserly duty free limit of 2 bottles of wine per person. Generally, the border fees for B.C. will result in you paying more than 100% of the retail value of the wine when you reach the border. These fees are extremely high when compared to other jurisdictions in Canada and are egregious if you compare them to other places in the world. See Border Taxes & Fees Modified for HST for more details. |
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Written by Mark Hicken
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Tuesday, 18 May 2010 22:05 |
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The BC Liquor Distribution Branch has announced today that the "liquor board markup" on all products will be increased as of July 1, 2010 as part of the implementation of the HST. The introduction of the HST means that the provincial sales tax on alcohol will actually go down from its current 10% to the 7% provincial component of the HST (the 12% HST is made up of 7% provincial sales tax + 5% federal sales tax). In order to prevent consumers from actually receiving a break on the introduction of the HST (maybe that would have been a good idea?) ... the government had previously announced that they would increase liquor board markups to compensate. Today's announcements make changes to the markups across the board for all products. On wine, the liquor board markup will increase from 117% to 123%. On spirits, it goes from 163% to 170%. If you weren't aware of these staggeringly high tax rates ... yes, you are reading those numbers correctly. The stated intention has always been to keep "shelf prices the same". More Info and Updates Here. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 20 May 2010 21:26 )
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Written by Mark Hicken
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Friday, 04 June 2010 00:00 |
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The BC Government has approved changes to some of its laws affecting the wine industry. The full extent and affect of the changes will not be known until accompanying regulations are drafted. However, the direction of the changes appears to be positive with blanket prohibitions on "tied houses" and "co-op advertising" being removed. In addition, there is an interesting hint that there may be some minor progress on the cross-border issue - apparently a "process" is in the works for the importation of small amounts of alcohol for personal use from other provinces. The changes have now been passed by the BC legislature but most do not become effective until a later date (as yet unannounced). More detail and relevant links are located here: BC Reforms Some Liquor and Wine Laws |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 04 June 2010 17:41 )
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Written by Mark Hicken
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Thursday, 08 April 2010 22:53 |
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The BC Government has entered into a tentative settlement with the BCGEU which is bad news for efforts to reform BC's wine laws and retail distribution system. The 2 year deal essentially preserves the status quo with guarantees that the government will continue to run at least 187 out of 195 existing government liquor stores as well as the wholesale distribution system. This deal is bad for wine consumers as it will mean that there will be no expansion of competition in the retail marketplace and no economic efficiencies realized from a reform of the existing system. As a result, we will continue to be stuck with a system which gives us unreasonably high retail prices and poor selection. In addition, it will be very difficult for the government to reduce the costs of running the existing system (about $300 million per year). At a time, when the province supposedly does not have enough money to properly fund education and health care, this is a bizarre policy choice on the government side. Why would they decide to spend many millions of dollars per year paying liquor store cashiers when they can't afford to pay teachers and nurses? More to come on this. |
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