plantpot

I have LOADS of booze, can I ship it? Or do I have to give it away...;(

Bag End Bunch

My understanding from our shipping quoter is that you can't ship opened bottles of booze. You can ship unopened bottles but you'd pay so much duty on them that it isn't worth it.

We've just given loads of unopened to my dad and we may have a 'use up our booze' party for the other stuff!!!

Alex

Pollyana

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=410054

Sally Simpson

We had quotes from shipping companies a few weeks ago & they said no alcohol. I asked because we have two bottles of very good port that were given to my sons at their baptism & are for when they are 21! I might risk giving custody of them to my parents

Tiawamutu

We managed to accidently sneak a bottle of Febreeze in our container (packers shipped it by mistake) Don't know if you be so lucky with the port

You could do one of 2 things:

1) Leave it with your parents

2) Declare it, and pay the tax (If it's that important to you, it'll be worth it)

Tiawamutu

A 'use up the booze' party sounds good

Sally Simpson

Was thinking it would be a good excuse for a trip back in 7 years time!


Can I come?

ray2gill

We had loads of different wines & liqueures which we had collected from around the world (too many to hide). We were told that import duty would be applied depending on the proof of the alcohol and could be as much as the original cost.

We ended up drinking most of it over a period of time and as we are making two trips taking 4 bottles of the ones we cannot replace easily with us each time as the duty free amount is 2.15 litres per person.

Don't drink it all at once!!!

plantpot

We didn't pay duty on it in the first place, how much IS the duty...?

P

tinpot

Hi,
We have only been here four weeks, and our container is still in Brisbane port, waiting for customs to check it off. We were told don't pack any drink, as it would be a green light for customs to go through your container with a fine tooth comb, and depending how long that takes, it could delay getting your container.
We used most of ours up at our leaving party, and gave the rest away.
Good Luck

ray2gill

If it is good Port not sure I would risk all the temperature changes as it would probably turn out to be very expensive vinegar as it is a wine not a spirit.

ray2gill

[QUOTE=tinpot;6736330]Hi,
We have only been here four weeks, and our container is still in Brisbane port, waiting for customs to check it off.

Just going off topic a moment. Our 20ft container arrived in Brisbane last week. So far we have had to pay two bills. One for Terminal Handling, Port & security charges of $483 and one for the delivering agent for handling at the port of $475. This is before it has even been inspected. The delivery was paid for from this end.

Are the above the normal additional costs incurred - and all this is before customs & AQIS have got their hands on it.

Sally Simpson

Good point
So, the parents it is!

Kalenge

We had quite a number of bottles of liquor which we brought over with us. Some were unopened, but many of them were opened with various quantities remaining. We knew that we would end up paying import duties for all of it.

Once our shipment arrived we were contacted by customs and asked to give a precise indication of the amount in each bottle and the alcoholic content. We had merely just written "half a bottle", "3/4 quarters of a bottle" etc on our original contents document. So we updated the list with our best guess in millilitres and looked up the alcoholic content for everything on the web. We ended up paying about $120 for about 30 bottles. Our total AQIS bill was $198.

It was the only thing that customs picked out of our 40ft container, despite having a few old wooden items which might have warranted a closer look. Our bikes, outdoor furniture, lawnmower etc were all glistening and looked brand new, so customs may have felt reassured that all our other stuff was good, but we have a feeling that our openness and honesty with the liquor that we brought over also contributed to our shipment getting waved through without any delay.

Kalenge

I'd definitely bring something which has some significance like that over. And don't worry about Port going off due to abnormal temperatures. We brought a number of bottles and, like everything else, it was as good as it was when it left the shores of the UK.

Sailors of old would have had a real rough time if they had to leave their Port at home in case it got too hot