I will be relocating to London next year. (Hence my post yesterday on popping a 2004 Salon- seemed like a nice reason to celebrate). It’s a bit open-ended how long I will be there but it’s likely 3-5 years. Knowing how this thing of ours works I’m going to be shifting gears and focusing much more on European wines, some for immediate consumption and some for long-term cellaring.
Trying to understand how the concept of ‘in bond’ plays into this. Is that something only for investment caliber wines that someone intends to flip (not me)? Or also for folks who intend to cellar their wine for a time but eventually consume it?
And what are the implications should I want to some day relocate the wine to the US? I get that there’s logistics involved and likely a duty to get it into the US (plus the not-cheap shipping). But is there any sort of tax/fee I would have to pay to get it out of bond in the U.K.? Any other considerations?
Apologies if these are dumb questions. I read up on it a bit but most of what I came across was for someone who lived in the U.K. and intended to invest in wine.
I don’t think they are dumb questions, but would it not be easier to get in touch with a large merchant who sells a lot in bond, like Berry Bros, https://www.bbr.com? They should have a clear answer for you?
This might help though; the UK has duty and vat (taxes) on a bottle of wine. You can buy & store in a bonded warehouse and the tax is held over until you remove. Slightly more complex is the matter of buying, say EU wines, storing in the UK and then shipping to the US, however, a bonded warehouse would handle the taxes and probably the shipping for you.
Do you know where in London you’ll be located? Winestores are popping up all over!
Jason - This probably makes the most sense if you intend to buy and keep the wine and take it back to the US eventually. It wouldn’t think it would be worth the hassle to buy in bond if you plan to consume it in the UK because you’d have to pay the VAT and duty. But perhaps it would if you’ll be there many years so that deferring the taxes is worthwhile and you’d be paying them on the purchase price rather than based on the market price at the time of consumption.
Like many answers, these are rough thoughts, but I lived there for years and collected/bought a lot of wine that I brought back to the states.
Essentially, “in bond” means you haven’t (technically for tax purposes) brought the wine into the UK. So you don’t pay the VAT, which is big (20%?). If you bring the wine into the UK, pay VAT, then ultimately bring it back to the US, you’ve literally thrown away 20%. So any wine you might bring back, or that you are just buying to sell later, DO NOT take out of bond. Just take delivery on your everyday drinkers, or the good bottles that you plan to consume in the UK.
Thanks all, this is very helpful. Agree that if I’m planning on drinking the wine it makes zero sense to put it ‘in bond’. Appreciate the recommendation on Berry Bros - familiar with them and the existing info they have online is very helpful.
No idea where I’ll be living yet. When I lived there last time (2008-2010) I was in West Kensington; loved it but will likely live somewhere else just because I like variety.
Just wanted to say congratulations, should be a fun few years at the least, as London is one of my favorite cities. At some of the local restaurants, I saw some wines that are hard to find in the U.S. (unsurprisingly), but also a ton of California wine (more surprising to me).
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