Are you a wine enthusiast that also loves to travel? Do you have a keen mind for detail and know how to navigate a lot of bureaucracy? Then it sounds like you have what it takes to become a wine importer.
You can’t just love wine and visiting wineries in foreign countries to be a wine importer. It’s also important to be incredibly organized and an enormous amount of patience.
When you do find success as an importer, it can be one of the most rewarding businesses to be in. There will be a lot of different things you’ll need to learn to juggle from finding the best Same Day Freight Delivery service to the right people to help with paperwork.
In this article, I will go over the things you need to know ahead of time if you want to get into this wine importer business.
Compliance paperwork
The biggest barrier to entry for anybody looking to import wine into the US is the mountain of paperwork that needs to be done to get started.
The first step is to apply for a Federal Importer Basic Permit. This is the most important document to have as without it you cannot operate. It requires a letter from the winery you wish to partner with to import their wine. Or letters if you plan to work with multiple wineries.
The process takes about 60 days so make sure you do this well ahead of time.
Once you are approved and have the permit, then you will have to apply for a Certificate of Label Application. This takes about 30 days and is important to have as your wine bottles and cases will need to have certain required information.
Then comes the FDA Product Registration which gives you a registration number. Lastly, a Power of Attorney for your broker that handles the customs when the wine enters the US.
Understand duties and taxes
The taxes that need to be collected on the wine you import is complex and not easy to understand. It depends on things like how many liters are in a case and the type of wine. For instance, sparkling wine is taxed differently than still wine.
In addition to what the IRS will tax you, there are import duties that need to be paid. How much again depends on the type of wine and what the alcohol percentage is.
Terms of sale
How and when you get paid will also not be very clear cut. There are going to be different terms of sale. For instance FOB terms mean that the buyer of the wine will assume all costs and risks of the shipment as soon as it is loaded on the ship or plane that will be bringing the wine to their facility. Payment is made as soon as the FOB is documented.
Ex Cellar means that the buyer pays when the seller has started the process of delivering the goods to the buyer’s facilities but they are still not ready for export. In this case the buyer takes responsibility for every step of the importing process.
