On border crossing you pay tax on all the alcohol at about 2-300% rate. So you end up paying around $30 total (unit price and tax) for a bottle that's $50 here. People do this and then (illegally) resell to friends. I was told by someone who's done this trip before that you can buy up to 48 bottles in one trip.

A bottle of wine that's $8 in the US at private retail, might cost $18-30 at the liquor store here (taxes in). Then another 3-4x that in a restaurant (plus additional tax).

Where we often can get a "deal" is on harder to find and desired bottles of wine that in the US you'd have to buy at auction or market price. The LCBO buys in huge volumes from producers and does get some good stuff in its classics catalogs (more selection than at the store). Their markups will often be less than the current auction/market price of that bottle. A friend used to resell higher priced wines into the US when eBay still allowed those types of auctions.

Bitt, your liquor, beer, cig and gas tax is practically non-existent compared to here.

We also pay property/municipal taxes, but those aren't rolled in with income. They're based on the value of your property and then a number of other municipal concerns. I think we're at about 1% of the assessed property value right now for our residence (per year).

It's safe to say that easily 50% of a typical person's income in Ontarrio goes to the governments.