If You Drive Into Pennsylvania with a bottle of Booze you broke the law simple as that. You may not enter below the laws regulating how you can legally.
The Most Recent Update
Updated 05/2017
BRINGING LIQUOR INTO PENNSYLVANIA FROM OUTSIDE THE
COUNTRY
Please be advised that it is the Pennsylvania State Police, Bureau of Liquor Control
Enforcement (BLCE), and not the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB), which
enforces the liquor laws in Pennsylvania. Further, information provided below is not
binding on the BLCE and is offered for information and guidance only.
Generally, bringing any liquor (including wine) into Pennsylvania is illegal, with limited
exceptions. Section 491(11) of the Liquor Code prohibits any person other than the PLCB,
the holder of a sacramental wine license, importer’s license, or a direct wine shipper’s
license, from importing alcohol into Pennsylvania. 47 P.S. § 4-491(11).
Any individual may import into Pennsylvania up to one gallon of liquor or wine free of tax
and mark-up, if that liquor or wine was purchased outside the United States. 47 P.S. § 4-
491(2). The purchaser must produce, at the PLCB’s request: (1) the ticket stub or receipt
for passage or other satisfactory evidence to prove foreign travel, (2) a receipt evidencing
purchase of the liquor in the foreign country, and (3) an affidavit indicating that the
purchaser was allowed to bring the liquor in duty-free. 40 Pa. Code § 9.82.
Liquor or wine imported in excess of one gallon, in addition to the documentation and
service charge requirements, is also subject to mark-up by the PLCB and state taxes to the
extent that it can otherwise be lawfully imported. 40 Pa. Code § 9.83.
Once the necessary
documents are filed and charges paid, a consent certificate approving the importation
would be issued. If you have any questions, please contact the Bureau of Product
Selection at ra-lbconsumeroffers@pa.gov.
If the liquor an individual wishes to ship from a foreign country to Pennsylvania does not
exceed one gallon in volume, it may be brought into Pennsylvania from overseas, pursuant
to section 491(2) of the Liquor Code, 47 P.S. § 4-491(2). Because an individual must show
that he/she purchased the liquor in a foreign country or United States territory, a receipt is
required reflecting the purchase, plus the other information specified in section 9.82 of the
PLCB’s Regulations mentioned earlier. If the liquor is more than one gallon, an individual
would have to comply with the general rules mentioned above.
