Moving to Singapore - What to do with my wine?

Shermy · Post by **Shermy** » Sat, 22 Nov 2014 7:52 am

Hi Guys,
We are relocating to Singapore shortly and was wondering what to do with my wine & liquor...
I have about 40+ bottles of red and a handful of bottles of whisky/vodka/etc, and not sure whether it is worth to bring them to Singapore with my move or leave them behind... Not sure about cost/benefit as I heard both pros & cons...
Looking forward to some advice.
Many thanks!

CaptainBullus · Post by **CaptainBullus** » Sat, 22 Nov 2014 8:04 am

I guess it depends on how expensive the wine is...you will have to pay as follows...

* 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

So unless it is really expensive booze i'd say it's probably best to drink the cheaper stuff and just bring in the really good stuff!

PNGMK · Post by **PNGMK** » Sun, 23 Nov 2014 8:17 am

IF you can leave the wine behind in good storage conditions I would do so.

maneo · Post by **maneo** » Sun, 23 Nov 2014 9:49 pm

If you drink wine and liquor often you may as well just bring it and pay the tax.
Unless you travel a lot and can supply yourself sufficiently at the Duty Free store, you're going to end up paying the tax whether you bring in your own stash or buy new wine and liquor here.

Only concern would be the storage conditions during shipment.
You may want to "enjoy" your really good stuff before you come (or make some good friends really happy with a few parting gifts).

hotandhumid · Post by **hotandhumid** » Mon, 24 Nov 2014 4:27 pm

Agree with Maneo.

Do note that shipments containing alcohol tend to attract more attention from customs for the entire cargo. Packing the alcohol such that it can be easily accessed and accounted for does help with the customs process.

maneo · Post by **maneo** » Tue, 25 Nov 2014 12:31 am

hotandhumid wrote:Packing the alcohol such that it can be easily accessed and accounted for does help with the customs process.

Agree wholeheartedly with this.
The Customs people will need to see each bottle to determine the fees to charge.
We shipped ~20 bottles over with our household goods in the mid-90s and put them all in 2 clearly marked boxes.

The tariff for wine seems just a little higher than what we paid back then.
With wine typically 12-15%, the fee now should be $8-10 per 750 ml bottle.
Cheapest sale price I've seen for any wine here has been about $12-13 (with volume discount).

However, the amount now will be much more for liquor.
With liquor in the range of 36-48% (72-96 proof), the tariff would be $24-32.
It's no wonder that liquor is so expensive here.