Originally Posted by
Flying Machine
Update. Went to EZE with my 12 bottle shipper.UA Agent at check in asked whats inside the box, I replied wine. She said okay its seems to packed correctly and placed a priorty tag on the box. I asked her why the priorty tag, she stated I dont want the people in back to think its cargo and not luggage. I said thanks. Upon arrival in IAD Customs agent asked whats in the box, I said wine, he said 1 liter or 750 I said 750 he said nothing just waived me on ( on the declaration card I just placed " 12 bottles of Argentine wine " with a $$ value for the total 12.
Doing it again next week
Glad to hear all went well. In my experience, US customs isnt interested in the $$$ value of wine, they just want you to be straight with them and inform exactly how many bottles you have. As long as you dont play games, they almost never bother to write you up and charge the taxes & duties. Booze that is below the hard liquor level doesnt really have that much taxation potential anyways...
Just as an example, I have some serious "whino" clients that regularly take back up to 3 (yes, three) full cases of wine with them. Their batting average is over .950 of getting waived past the customs checkpoints... and even in the less than 5% cases when they do get written up, the amount charged is nominal.