Mail order wine from Europe -taxes?

zaralocke

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me out. 
I don't drink much but when we do we have a specific wine we really like, maybe 1 bottle a month. I've just heard from our usual wine merchant that it's been discontinued by the supplier and they have run out of stock. Most of the UK wine merchants seem to only have the odd bottle left but the european ones still seem to have stock. I've been trying to work out the costs of buying from Europe so it's not horrifically expensive. If I add VAT (20%?) then excise @ £2.8810/L (from what I can tell). Then its still actually cheaper to buy than UK dealers. Are there any other costs I've missed? I'm surprised there's not an online tool to help with this. All the info I can find is about commercial imports, not someone buying a dozen bottles for home use.

Marcon

zaralocke said:

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me out. 
I don't drink much but when we do we have a specific wine we really like, maybe 1 bottle a month. I've just heard from our usual wine merchant that it's been discontinued by the supplier and they have run out of stock. Most of the UK wine merchants seem to only have the odd bottle left but the european ones still seem to have stock. I've been trying to work out the costs of buying from Europe so it's not horrifically expensive. If I add VAT (20%?) then excise @ £2.8810/L (from what I can tell). Then its still actually cheaper to buy than UK dealers. Are there any other costs I've missed? I'm surprised there's not an online tool to help with this. All the info I can find is about commercial imports, not someone buying a dozen bottles for home use.

Have you tried this, which although headlined as importing for businesses/the self employed, looks as though it should cover the points adequately for someone just buying a modest quantity for themself: https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

Brie

Don't forget there'll be shipping and a handling charge which might add significantly to the overall cost.

Excise Duty!!!  So you're wanting a sparkling wine that's less than 8.5% ABV?    If so it might be a alsacian?  Have you looked to see what alternatives there might be a Aldi or Lidl?  They do a lot of very nice German or German type wines and are likely to be significantly cheaper than importing.  

Wine Duty

How much Wine Duty you pay depends on the strength of the wine (or made-wine) and whether it’s still or sparkling.

	Strength (ABV)	Rate per litre
Still	More than 1.2%, up to 4%	91.68 pence
Still	More than 4%, up to 5.5%	126.08 pence
Still	More than 5.5%, up to 15%	297.57 pence
Still	More than 15%, up to 22%	396.72 pence
Sparkling	More than 5.5% but less than 8.5%	288.10 pence
Sparkling	More than 8.5%, up to 15%	381.15 pence

You pay duty on wine and made-wine of more than 22% ABV at the same rate as spirits.