Originally Posted by
PTahCha
To clarify, US custom duties is based on the total value in addition to the quantity. As long as you declare all purchases and wine (just list x bottles of wine) and the combined value, and if it's less than $800-1000 total they will waive the duties. However, knowing what Gaucho has to offer, you may be testing the limit.
Im not an expert on the US Customs procedures manual, so I cant comment on how the fine print is actually spelt out. However, I do have a money back guarantee for any duty charged for all my US clients, so I have very solid empirical evidence on how the system works in real life.
To be more specific, I have at least one client per month that takes back 2 or 3 cases (24 to 36 bottles) of high end Argentine wine to the USA. These purchases are alwas very well north of US$1000, the average price of these cases are about US$1200 per case. So the value of these purchases is almost always north of US$2400.
I have been offering the money back guarantee for Duty and Taxes for over 5 years now, and have been called upon to make a refund in less than 2% of the instances.
Conclusion... Im not disputing that the rules/fine print may very well be whats been posted above, Im just saying that in 98% of the instances they are not enforced. Declare every single bottle you have with you and you will be fine, as noted, almost every time.