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Excise tax in Canada is a charge on particular goods, and licensed makers and importers pay it long before you reach the till. Since 1 April 2026 the duty on spirits above 7% alcohol is $14.117 per litre of pure alcohol, and a pack of 20 cigarettes carries $3.89. You rarely see these amounts on a receipt.
What counts as an excise tax and what counts as an excise duty?
The CRA uses two words, and they aren’t the same thing. Excise duties apply to spirits, wine, beer, tobacco, cannabis and vaping products. Excise taxes apply to a short list of other items, such as fuel-inefficient vehicles, vehicle air conditioners and certain fuels. The CRA also runs the Air Travellers Security Charge, which is charged when a passenger boards at a listed Canadian airport.
What about the fuel charge? It ended. The CRA says returns for it stopped being needed after 31 March 2025, in the provinces where it applied.
None of this is GST or HST. Those are sales taxes, charged as a percentage of the price and collected by registered businesses. Excise sits underneath. If you want to see how the sales tax layer works, the GST and HST calculator handles it.
Who pays excise tax to the Canada Revenue Agency?
Not the customer, at least not directly. The CRA says anyone who makes or produces spirits, wine, beer, tobacco, cannabis or vaping products in Canada needs a licence, and most licensees must post at least $5,000 in security. The duty is owed when the product is packaged, delivered or stamped, depending on the type. Importers pay it when the goods arrive.
The same idea holds for excise tax. A manufacturer of a taxed item generally needs a licence, unless annual sales stay at or under $50,000. A wholesaler can hold a licence too, which lets it defer the tax until the goods are resold.
After that, the cost is baked into the wholesale price. Whether a shop shows it, hides it or rounds it up is the shop’s business, and we haven’t confirmed how any particular retailer treats it.
Excise duty rates and excise tax rates in 2026
These are the rates the CRA lists as effective 1 April 2026, for beer at the regular rate. Alcohol rates are per litre or per hectolitre (100 litres), as shown. They move once a year on 1 April with the Consumer Price Index, so the next scheduled change is 1 April 2027. The CRA page says Bill C-30, which received royal assent on 18 June 2026, caps the yearly increase for beer, spirits and wine at 2% for two years.
The rates of excise duty on beer are adjusted annually on April 1 based on changes to the Consumer Price Index.
Excise duty rates, canada.ca
| Product | Rate from 1 April 2026 |
|---|---|
| Beer over 2.5% alcohol | $37.69 per hectolitre |
| Beer over 1.2% up to 2.5% | $18.85 per hectolitre |
| Beer up to 1.2% | $3.128 per hectolitre |
| Spirits over 7% alcohol | $14.117 per litre of absolute ethyl alcohol |
| Spirits up to 7% alcohol | $0.358 per litre |
| Wine over 1.2% up to 7% alcohol | $0.358 per litre |
| Wine over 7% alcohol | $0.745 per litre |
| Cigarettes | $0.97299 per 5 cigarettes |
| Tobacco sticks | $0.19460 per stick |
| Manufactured tobacco | $12.16227 per 50 grams |
| Vaping products | $1.12 per 2 mL or 2 g (first 10 mL or g) |
Cannabis is more involved. The CRA lists a federal flat duty of $0.25 per gram of dried or fresh flowering material and $0.075 per gram of non-flowering material, a 2.5% rate where it applies, and an additional duty that differs by province (Manitoba has none). We leave the full cannabis schedule to the CRA page.
What does that mean for a bottle or a case?
Here’s the arithmetic on the standard rates. A 750 mL bottle of 40% spirits holds 0.3 litres of pure alcohol, so it carries about $4.24 of duty. A 750 mL bottle of wine over 7% works out to about $0.56, a lot less than the spirits bottle even though both sit on a shelf in the same aisle. A case of 24 cans of beer at 341 mL each is 8.184 litres, which comes to about $3.08 at the higher beer rate. A pack of 20 cigarettes is four lots of five, so $3.89.
These are our own sums from the published rates, not figures from a price list. The CRA says reduced beer rates apply to the first 75,000 hectolitres a licensed brewer makes each year, so treat the beer figure as a ceiling for a small brewer. Either way, duty is a few bucks a bottle, not the biggest part of the price.
Does excise show up on your receipt?
Almost never as its own line. The duty is settled further up the chain, so what you see at the till is a shelf price plus sales tax. How a shop builds that shelf price is up to the shop.
Where people get this wrong
The biggest slip is mixing up excise with sales tax. A business that sells a taxed product still charges GST or HST on top, and it still needs its own registration for that. Buying a licence doesn’t cover it.
Another one is assuming a rate you saw last year still applies. The alcohol and tobacco figures above are dated 1 April 2026, and the CRA schedules the next adjustment for 1 April 2027. Check the CRA’s rate page before you price anything.
Then there’s the import side. If you’re importing alcohol or tobacco for a business, the duty is due at the border, and a missed licence is a bigger problem than a missed payment. The CRA’s own contact for licensing questions is the number on its excise page, and that’s worth a call before you bring in a shipment.
Bringing a few bottles home from a trip is a different matter, with its own personal-exemption rules at the border. We haven’t covered those here, so check the Canada Border Services Agency before you pack the suitcase.
If you run a small company that sells taxed goods, the tax you collect also affects your yearly profit. The corporate tax calculator shows how that lands on a small company’s income tax, and the HST reverse calculator pulls the sales tax back out of a price that already includes it. To see how cost changes move your margin, try the profit margin calculator.
The federal fuel excise tax is suspended through January 31, 2027. It returns at half the usual rate from February 1 to March 31, 2027, and at the full rate from April 1, 2027. The rates per litre are in Federal Fuel Excise Tax Relief: Dates and Rates Through 2027.
Where the numbers come from
The duty rates come from the CRA excise duty rates page (date modified 19 June 2026), checked on 12 November 2026. The list of taxes, the licensing rules and the end of the fuel charge come from the CRA page on excise taxes, excise duties, air travellers security charge and fuel charge, read in September 2026. The fuel excise dates come from the fuel excise relief article on this site. We’re an independent site, and no government body is behind it.
Frequently asked questions
Is excise tax the same as GST or HST?
No. GST and HST are sales taxes charged as a percentage of the price and collected by registered businesses. Excise is a separate charge on particular goods, paid by licensed makers or importers. A shop that sells a taxed product still charges GST or HST on top of the shelf price.
Which products carry excise duty?
Spirits, wine, beer, tobacco, cannabis and vaping products carry excise duty. Excise taxes cover a shorter list, such as fuel-inefficient vehicles, vehicle air conditioners and certain fuels. The CRA also collects the Air Travellers Security Charge when a passenger boards at a listed Canadian airport.
Do I pay excise tax when I buy a bottle of wine?
You pay it indirectly. The licensed producer or importer owes the duty, and it becomes part of the wholesale cost. On a 750 mL bottle of wine over 7% alcohol, the duty works out to about $0.56 at the 2026 rate. Whether a shop shows it separately is up to the shop.
How much excise duty is on a bottle of spirits?
A 750 mL bottle of 40% spirits holds 0.3 litres of pure alcohol. At $14.117 per litre of absolute ethyl alcohol, the duty is about $4.24. That is our own arithmetic on the CRA rate from 1 April 2026, before the shop adds its margin and sales tax.
Does Canada still have a fuel charge?
The CRA says fuel charge returns were no longer needed after 31 March 2025 in the provinces where it applied. The federal fuel excise tax is a separate tax. It has been suspended since 20 April 2026, and the dates for its return are in our fuel excise relief article.
When do the alcohol and tobacco rates change?
The rates listed here took effect on 1 April 2026. The CRA adjusts excise duty rates each 1 April with the Consumer Price Index, so the next scheduled adjustment is 1 April 2027. The CRA page says a cap of 2% applies to beer, spirits and wine for two years.
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