Advice on bring back a case of wine from France
 

Hi,

Didn't manage to find enough info on this. I'm travelling to france next month and I intend to buy back a substantial number of bottles of wine, perhaps 10 bottles or so.

Options:
1. get the shop to ship it back to Singapore for me, if they can.
2. have it put into a case and check it in to my flight. KF*G flying Y. Does SQ allow this?

I know I'll have to pay duties at SIN customs, but I couldn't find the rates on the customs website - I keep hitting broken links.

Would appreciate your advice if you've done anything like this before.

Thanks.

I don't know how much is the current duties for bringing in alcohol (exceeding duty-free allowance). However you will need to pay the duties as well as GST.

Also anything above 10 liters and you will need to have relevant Customs permit.

You can email Customs to check on the duties payable.

I've had very good experiences checking dozens of cases of wine as luggage over the years (not on SQ but on other airlines). The real key is to use a proper shipping box with a styrofoam insert for wine bottles. They look something like this:

http://www.dalluva.com/wp-content/up...ne-home-11.jpg

Don't worry if your bottles can move around a bit in the individual styrofoam cylinders. Mine always do and it's never been an issue.

SIN customs duty for alcohol
 

http://www.customs.gov.sg/leftNav/tr...s+and+GST.html

Formulae for computation of duty payable on liquors:

a) Formula
Duty = Total quantity in litre x $88.00 x % of alcoholic strength

b) Example : Importation of 100 litres of Port Wine with alcoholic strength of 19%
Duty = 100 x $88.00 x 0.19 = $1672.00

By the way this post has nothing to do with SQ, Mods may decide to move it.

Looks like it has something to do with SQ to me...

Advice on bring back a case of wine from France
 

I've brought in a few cases on CX (more than 10l the first time - but the customs guys let it pass).

Had worse off cases than PHLGovFlyer had (inside bit being rough-board and not styrofoam- kinda like pulp tray material for eggs- that was all that BevMo had left).
Tack on a couple of fragile stickers and it came out all right.

My only regret is that I discovered bringing back substantial quantities of wine very late in life! Makes no sense to pay SGP prices!

@PHLgovFlyer that is an awesome box. Will look out for one.

@carrotjuice thanks for the calculations. I know the customs part is not SQ specific but I also wanted to know if SQ carrier itself has any quirks or restrictions. Like is it a special checkin item or OK as normal luggage quota.

@jagmeets so I'll declare to customs and see if they want to tax me. No problems above 10litres?

Very dangerous to try. A friend of mine got hit with a 10k fine because he did not declare 5 bottles of Vodka.

Advice on bring back a case of wine from France
 

I declared everything I had and paid the proper duty. Had missed the 10l limit and had been slightly over that, and the customs officer, noticing that I had been honest about it and offered to either pay a penalty, or leave the excess behind, had let me take in more than 10l, with the 'regular' duty rates.

And no- I am not recommending that anyone evade duty / taxes!! And Never ever in SIN!
Just that especially for wine drinkers, it makes a whole lot of sense to pay the duty/taxes and import, rather than buy from onshore retail.

@jhender: a case is less than 10l- I'd stick to that and not go over tbh.

jagmeets - Is there a rule that the maximum a person can bring into SIN as accompanied luggage is only 10 liters or 1 case? Can't seem to see that rule anywhere.

Advice on bring back a case of wine from France
 

Yes- even I'd missed it when looking the first time around.

http://www.customs.gov.sg/NR/rdonlyres/34F0B785-1F56-42A3-8E46-CD181A95CF1A/0/69369_SGCustomGuideEng_Lowres.pdf

Advice on bring back a case of wine from France
 

I just returned from AKL with 6 bottles of wine. They retailer packed them in bubble warp and placed into a box which was carried in my suitcase padded by my clothes. The bottles (and my clothes) survived the journey. Some things to note: keep your receipt, note down the volume and % alcohol as you'll need them for duty/GST calculation. There is a DIY payment kisok next to the green channel where you can pay duty using NETS or CC. On the way out, show the officer your duty receipt and off you go!

I think the maximum amount of duty-free wine one could bring into Singapore is 2 liters.

http://www.customs.gov.sg/leftNav/tr...ST+Relief.html

I've brought back many cases of wine into SG.

As some posters here have said, if you're just bringing in wine, tax free limit is 2L.

At Changi airport, you can either go into the customs office or proceed to the machine outside the customs office and do the "honor code" to pay the GST/tax on the wine you're bringing in, minus the duty free amount.

Last advice, not worth it in SG to "forget" you have more wine than you declared ;)

Enjoy your vino!

Are you sure about this? I thought I heard something a while back that whereas your duty-free limit is 2L... there is no duty-free limit if you have more. So if you have 2L then you pay nothing, but if you have 3L then you pay tax on all 3L.

Just what I recall hearing, maybe someone has checked the laws recently and can confirm...