Send case of wine to Taiwan

Can anyone help me with this question:
I want to send a case of bottles wine and vodka (mixed) to my relatives in Taiwan. Not sure if I will send it from USA or directly from relatives in Ukraine.
Will be any problem with customs or parcel service?
What mail/shipping service you would recommend?

Thank you.

1 Like

Seems like no one has an experience with this :unamused:

[quote=“feropont”]Can anyone help me with this question:
I want to send a case of bottles wine and vodka (mixed) to my relatives in Taiwan. Not sure if I will send it from USA or directly from relatives in Ukraine.
Will be any problem with customs or parcel service?
What mail/shipping service you would recommend?

Thank you.[/quote]

You can’t (well, not legally) send alcohol via U.S. Postal Service, so considering it costs $15-20 just to send lightweight items like socks I’d scratch that option off your list. Fed-Ex or UPS may be able to offer better advice.

I know Eslite, City Super & Jason’s all carry imported European wines, but I don’t really know the process. Maybe you or your relatives can check there to find out?

You or they may also have to pay quite a bit of import duty/tax if it’s shipped “properly” & not simply labeled “olive oil” or something… :whistle: I found the following on an Australian wine site re: importing wine to Taiwan:

[quote] * Wine tax: NT$7 (A$0.35) for each percentage point of alcohol per litre
* Import tariff: 10 per cent for wine and 20 per cent for sparkling wine and port
* Sales tax: 5 per cent (GST)[/quote] So a 1L $10US bottle of wine (say 12% ALC) would cost roughly $15 plus shipping. A whole case including shipping would probably cost around $300US :astonished: That is, if shipped “properly” and as an import for sale like this site talked about - don’t know what the laws are for personal use…

Is this your own booze you can sell yourself very cheaply?? :slight_smile: Are you coming back here & could just pack it in a suitcase? Even paying excess baggage costs, you’d only pay customs on the volume of alcohol beyond the personal limit, which still might be considerably cheaper.

For comparison, a friend here recently bought a German wine at Eslite for at least $600NT - it came from the part of Germany I lived in, where it would’ve sold for around 4-Euro = roughly 400% markup. Certainly not a cheap endeavor (I still want to go buy some…).

Sorry I can’t offer more specific help - Good luck!

Thank you for reply: sjhuz01
Actually I have wine and spirits distribution business and trying to get on Taiwan market.
That is why I need to send samples first even realizing how expensive it would be with transportation.
I am presently in search of distribution company in Taiwan.
I export vodka, wine, brandy if interesting you can see my showcase at http://www.harilandistributors.com

when i was researching something similar I talked to the customs people and they said something about not paying tax if it was labelled at samples.

Samples should work to avoid import duty… Customs do not like spending time filing paper nabbing the pennies… they prefer big catches

The items are breakable so I would go with a courier service. Postal services are good at high volume non breakable stuff, such as letters, documents, book and clothes. They tend to throw stuff around the place, the quick and dirty method when transferring at their hubs

In that case your highest cost will be the courier. You should check courier websites for size, volume, insurance, breakables

Thank you for your advice.

Further advice: Sending to a home adress attracts less attention than a business address. Also, as mentioned previously, ask the sender to declare the goods as samples and their worth as nominal (NT$200 or so). For couriers, DHL has good service on this end IMHO.

I have a friend importing Portuguese wines into Taiwan, so he might be able to help you. It is very expensive as taxes are 100% of the invoice value.

Thank you for reply.
Very interesting.
Can you get me in contact with your friend?
My direct e-mail address: info@harilandistributors.com

feropont.

Hello, please put me in contact with your portuguese friend.
I also want to move some stuff to TW, hardly know anything about what customs charge for what - and have wine in the list.
Thank you :laughing:

Even if they’re samples, you can’t import any alcohol if you don’t have the alcohol importing license AND an import company based in Taiwan. I know it first-hand experience, when I had to bring samples.

ouch! olé !
but what about if it comes with personal effects ?
there must be a quantity u can bring b4 customs charge u anything, right ?