spc354

Just saw the information below:
"According to TSA, alcoholic beverages can be packed in your checked baggage. Those with between 24% and 70% alcohol are limited in checked bags to 5 liters per passenger and need to be unopened.

Beverages with 24% or less alcohol in your checked baggage don’t need to adhere to the same rules.

When it comes to your carry on, you’re allowed to bring smaller bottles of alcohol but they need to “comfortably fit into a single quart-sized bag,” TSA notes."

My 1st question is: I can bring 6 bottles of 750 ml liquor in my checked bag without problems, right?
My 2nd question: Can my duty-free 2 liters can be additional, right?
My 3rd question is: How much tax should I expect to pay for the 6 checked bottles? Based on their price paid? Based on alcohol content total? Any other metric?

Thanks in advance for your valuable answers.
Satya

pinniped

If you're looking to transport 6 bottles of booze, I'd get an airline shipper case. It's a cardboard box with inserts to secure the bottles. I've used them many times with wine and whisk(e)y. Sometimes wineries/distilleries will give you one for free if you're buying a bunch of their stuff, or I've bought them for $15-20 at shipping stores. Airlines are used to seeing them and know how to label and handle them.

I once had an airline tell me not to pack more than one bottle of wine per checked bag, but it sounded like their own rule - not an FAA or customs rule. Basically, "we don't want red wine all over everything." You can also buy travel sleeves for individual bottles for a couple bucks apiece.

I have also shoved 2 bottles of whisky into a single checked bag while clearing customs at a US airport and rechecking it with the airline. Not sure if the airline would have been happy to see me do this, but the bags made it home in one piece. I've never done this when there was already booze in the checked bag.

No idea how different countries tax booze when you're declaring excess over the duty free allowance.

kale73

So no limits on alcoholic beverages with >70% alcohol?

andyh64000

I have flown with 10 bottles of wine in my suitcase both domestically and internationally without incident.

MarkCron

A case of wine is no problem. I have even flown with 2 cases ... one case per box, plus a suitcase.

Eastbay1K

I've also been around a baggage carousel seeing red wine dripping about. Not mine. And fortunately didn't get on my bag.

The principal metric of the tax on the booze is how much actual alcohol you're importing, so a 35% bottle is going to be generally half the tax of a 70% one. I don't know how the formula works if you're importing booze with values that also exceed the tax free limit, say if you buy a bottle of Louie the Nineteenth Konyak in the special collector crystal bottle for $5000.

mjm

I faaaaaaaar prefer Japan's tax rate on wine: 150 yen per 750ml bottle.

On shipping method, hate the planet for a moment and use styrofoam, it is the best option for your wine's safety.

tom tulpe

Those ain't beverages.

SJCFlyerLG

I believe that >70% alcohol (such as 151 rum) are not allowed in checked bags because they are very flammable.

Eastbay1K

Correct. (Ironically, I passed by a parking garage in Buenos Aires last night that had a warning sign not to leave alcohol in the vehicle for the same reason.)

Herb687

Sorry. That was mine. Lost a few bottles of Colombian Nero d'Avola blend somewhere between BOG and ATL. AV managed to get the wine from MDE to BOG undamaged but DL didn't display the same level of care.

Still miffed that those bottles broke. One was a gift for a serious wine collector. His cellar may have just about everything but it's poorly stocked with Colombian reds.

This reminds me to maybe make up for that loss by bringing a couple bottles of Kentucky Cab Franc back from LEX in a few weeks.

Duke787

Two things:

1) For transport: I use wine diapers (you can purchase them on Amazon). They hold regular liquor bottles and wine bottles quite easily. Otherwise I use t-shirts to wrap around the bottles stick them in the middle. I've never had a problem though with transporting and any kind of limit or weight issue (apart from airline weight limits)
2) For declaring: I always declare the full amount of what I have because of my Global Entry (I would hate to lose it over a few dollars of duty). I have never actually been asked to pay any duty when I've exceeded the limit. The last couple of times they CBP agent has asked me why I was flagged, I've then told them I came from XYZ and had wine / liquor that exceeded the limit, and they've said okay great and waved me through

I have paid duty in Japan -- one time I was on a trip that took me to Australia and then back to Japan. I had wine that exceeded their limit and so they charged me something even though I was only there for 20 hours (I believe technically per Japan laws, I was considered a transit passenger so didn't owe duty but it wasn't worth arguing over like $20)

exerda

I have never had any issues with the quantity/volume limits on alcohol in checked bags, either domestically or internationally. (I've also never had issues with customs limits on the same, but that's a separate topic.)

I routinely fly with 2x 60-70lb suitcases of alcohol brought back from trips, and know someone who travels with that much around the world to share on pretty much every trip he takes. TSA sometimes opens the bags and leaves a note, but I have never had them confiscate or lose any contents. Once they even did a better job wrapping back up a couple of bottles I'd packed, adding some extra bubble wrap...!

In the past couple of weeks, I brought back a couple of cases of tallboy beer cans in one bag (from Treehouse and Trillium on a MA trip) and a Yeti backpack (inside a lightweight suitcase) full of bottles, probably 3-4x 750s and 6-8 500mL bottles. No worries at all. Sometimes, I have to move a few things between bags if the airline agent sees it being 71lbs, for example, but that's about it.

JY1024

Moved to the Practical TS/S forum to join the existing discussion of alcohol in checked bags. Thanks. /JY1024, TravelBuzz co-moderator

Section 107

USofA taxes alcohol not based on the purchase cost of the alcohol but on the actual total quantity of alcohol - not on the total quantity of liquid - in the bottle(s). So, for example, lets say you had three one-litre bottles of 40% ABV over the duty-free limit. Tax would be calculated on the 1.2 litres of total actual alcohol (and not on the 3 litres of total liquid). The rate may vary depending upon the type of spirit and I seem to recall origin of the alcohol might be a factor, too. It can get pretty complicated. But in general, the actual amount of tax due for most pax is in the small single dollar amounts and not worth the time of the customs officers to assess and they just tell you move along.

If, however, they suspect the alcohol is not for personal consumption but is being imported to be resold - well, then they frequently use their discretion to make it worth their time to assess the tax.