Originally Posted by
kahuna613
I am flying AMS-JFK-DCA next week and would like to bring some wine above the duty exempt allowance for Thanksgiving. I should arrive at Terminal 4 at 19:30 and leave either from Terminal 4 or 2 at 20:59. I have Global Entry.
Is this enough time to pay duty on a case of wine? I have never had to do this before and have no idea how long it would take.
how much is "some"? 1.5 litres more? or a melchoir more?
Probably you will not need any additional time to pay as you will not be required to pay any duty. Here's why: duty on personal use alcohol is collected based on the amount of actual alcohol per volume (proof) and not on the number of bottles or overall volume of liquid. The tariff on personal use alcohol is very low (around $0.20/litre), so unless you are importing very large quantities of alcohol then, to borrow a phrase, the amount of duty is simply not worth the squeeze and quite often the officers will just thank you for declaring and send you on your way.
here is a pretty good write up:
Over Your Duty Free Limit! What Happens Next? - Cocktail Wonk
tariff rates can be found here:
Harmonized Tariff Schedule PDFs (usitc.gov) chapter 22 is spirits.