Shipping Wine To Australia

[JamieBahrain]

An old chestnut.

60% of purchase price plus another 10%


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[Polymer]

Protectionist BS.

I still don't understand how this is calculated like this or how people think this is applied equally... It is 29% of wholesale and even says you can can calculate it as 50% retail (for own use or sale). Is it because they are calculating what it looks like if the cellar door sells it to a distributor who then sells it to a retailer so we have two sets of 30-40% margin? I don't know.

Plus one of the things not subject to WET are things like price to ship...yet it is calculated here. Maybe they don't trust importers or the receipts?

[JamieBahrain]

When going the other way, Tourist Refund Scheme is about a 25% percent refund of purchase price from memory.

Dodgy receipts can be perilous. I know they use wine-searcher on occasion.

[Mahmoud Ali]

My other half is Australian but at these rates I won't ever consider moving to Australia.

[Polymer]

When going the other way, Tourist Refund Scheme is about a 25% percent refund of purchase price from memory.

Dodgy receipts can be perilous. I know they use wine-searcher on occasion.

Just curious..if you're passing through as a stopover...if you got charged X for WET coming in, you'd get X coming out if you have that receipt? Basically whatever was charged you get back.

[JamieBahrain]

Inbound duty charged receipts are completely different to outbound TRS. You will get nowhere near what you were charged as refund.

[mychurch]

The last case that was sent to me by friends in The Netherlands was opened by customs. Retail was about €600 and I had to pay $58 in import taxes based on what they saw inside. 1 case bought retail has incurred the full import tariff, but so far I am 1 for 4 when it comes to paying the published amount. I suppose low volume (1 case at a time) and obscure wines have helped

[Polymer]

Inbound duty charged receipts are completely different to outbound TRS. You will get nowhere near what you were charged as refund.

Even with the receipt showing what was paid in WET for the exact same wine?

I was under the impression that if you have a receipt that outlines WET then you'd get that back outbound assuming you're using the same receipt..it doesn't make sense otherwise.

[JamieBahrain]

I don't think the rules are set which is why I posted. What you get charged at the airport is completely different to what you get charged importing with personal effects by the looks! I bring in hundreds of bottles a year and I can't recall my receipts having a WET breakdown-anyone else?

Perhaps I'm not clear on the scenario you painted. Say I've flown in from FRA to MEL with a six pack case of Burgundy I paid $1000AUD for. I'd expect $510 Duty. Next day I fly out to NZ and fill out TRS. I'd expect to be refunded under $300!

That said, I really expect to be refunded nothing as I don't meet the TRS criteria of clear ABN number of the business and purchased within Australia in the last 30 days.

[Mahmoud Ali]

Say I've flown in from FRA to MEL with a six pack case of Burgundy I paid $1000AUD for. I'd expect $510 Duty.

If you flew in directly into Edmonton (or Calgary for that matter) you would be expected to pay about C$16 in duty for the four bottles, two bottles being duty free. Alberta has a flat rate tax regardless of the value. Not so for other provinces, though the two bottle duty free still applies.

[Polymer]

I don't think the rules are set which is why I posted. What you get charged at the airport is completely different to what you get charged importing with personal effects by the looks! I bring in hundreds of bottles a year and I can't recall my receipts having a WET breakdown-anyone else?

Perhaps I'm not clear on the scenario you painted. Say I've flown in from FRA to MEL with a six pack case of Burgundy I paid $1000AUD for. I'd expect $510 Duty. Next day I fly out to NZ and fill out TRS. I'd expect to be refunded under $300!

That said, I really expect to be refunded nothing as I don't meet the TRS criteria of clear ABN number of the business and purchased within Australia in the last 30 days.

So even though you pay WET inbound when you bring them in, they don't provide a listing of what WET was paid?

Let's say you're passing through Australia...and you bring with you 12 bottles. Total value of say 2000 AUD. To make it easy, they tax 50% for a total of 1000 AUD. They provide you proof of WET paid for these 12 bottles.
3 days later, you're on a flight out of Australia w/ the same 12 bottles. Wouldn't you have the WET receipt? Which indicates how much you paid...and the exact amount you should be getting back.

I suppose there is an unknown of if you have 12 bottles but only leave with 6.....

But could you ask for a breakdown and receipt? I would guess they are obligated to give you one if they're charging you for it. Which means you have an invoice that breaks it down.

I doubt most people ask for it (not sure they even do it) simply because there is no point...but surely they'd have to provide it if you ask for it?

[JamieBahrain]

You are refunded WET outbound on the basis of a Tourist Refund Scheme and I reckon City Hall will say tough-titties in your scenario. Since you have not bought the wine from an Australian business the scenario is moot. I guess the whole idea of the often rorted TRS is to promote local business- not in the case with our Burgundian domaine.


TRS Reminder :

get a valid paper tax invoice in English with:
your name (and only your name) as it appears in your passport if the invoice is $1,000 or more
a description of the goods that allows us to match the goods to the invoice
the retailer's name, address and ABN (ACNs and ARNs not accepted)
the amount of GST or WET paid (or total price including GST)
the date of purchase

[Gary W]

Quite a few of my samples that come direct from Italy have 'Olive oil' marked as the contents. Not had a problem so far.

[GraemeG]

Ha! "Processed verjuice." How's that for duty free?

[JamieBahrain]

Dodgy bastards....

[Gary W]

Dodgy bastards....

Italians!

[asajoseph]

Hi Jamie,

I've been away from the forum for a while (too busy at work to keep up), but what did you ship, and from where?

I'm going to be biting the bullet next year & shipping my cellar from the UK, if I can ever get hold of the shipping agent (they have bigger things to worry about right now, no doubt!).

Asa

[JamieBahrain]

I didn't ship any wine. Just a FYI post as the topic often arises.

I don't think I ever would considering the taxes published being even higher than expected!

[asajoseph]

Hmmm... Pretty sure that table isn't correct.

Simplest explanation I've yet found:

https://www.ato.gov.au/law/view/document?doc ... /ATO/00001

[JamieBahrain]

I agree.

The form outlining customs charges is attached to an official customs declaration form for a shipping container. Hard to ascertain veracity.

[asajoseph]

I may actually try to get round to calling a UK shipping agent tonight. I need to get my arse in gear on this. Will let you all know if they can illuminate any further on the process (as indeed - it always comes up).

[Mike Hawkins]

In my experience the taxes equate to a touch over 49% and are applied to the value of the wine (purchase price if you have receipts) and freight.

One way that has helped me is by bringing in a wide assortment of wines. I used to have 60 plus bottles each time I flew into Sydney and often had 15+ different wines. Technically the customs guys are meant to list each of them in their system. Because this was going to be a huge hassle, they often asked me to choose 1 or 2 and they would extrapolate total volume from those. Obviously I chose the cheaper ones... with their consent. That said, I haven’t used this approach for a few years now.

[Mike Hawkins]

I may actually try to get round to calling a UK shipping agent tonight. I need to get my arse in gear on this. Will let you all know if they can illuminate any further on the process (as indeed - it always comes up).

I use Seabrooks from UK to the US. If you use them, ask for a fixed price. A few times they’ve jacked the price up after shipping. And if they take delivery out of a bonded warehouse, you won’t pay duty of the UK Vat.

[asajoseph]

Cheers Mike. I contacted them back in 2017, but never got a response.

I've just reappraised my cellar in the UK, and most of it is now unavailable in Aus (only about 50% of the Bdx 2010s I hold are currently listed here), and for those that are it's around $500/700 more economical to ship them over here / case than it would be to sell locally in the UK & re-purchase here. Interesting economies, if you can be bothered with the hassle of shipping.

Anyway, answer from my shipping contact as follows (UK>AUS), for refrigerated sea freight:

GBP 75/9L case, plus:

• Insurance 0.65% of the value + freight
• Duty – value + freight x 8%
• WET – value + freight + duty x 29%
• GST – value + freight + duty + WET x 10%

So on a modest case worth $500 (locally IB in the UK), that works out at around $475 to ship - still worthwhile in many cases though.