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If you’re an enthusiast or a business owner looking to purchase wine, understanding the laws around alcohol tax in Singapore is crucial. It includes excise duties and Goods and Services Tax (GST). Both of which play significant roles in impacting the price of wine. In this article, we delve into the different types of wine taxes in Singapore and provide links to a few handy tools which you can use to calculate the total charges involved in the cost of your wine purchase.

Why Is It Important To Know About Wine Tax?

If you are buying wine from a store or retailer, you generally don’t need to worry about wine tax. It’s all been calculated by the seller, with their own markup added to the final sale price.

However if you are considering buying investment wines from overseas and importing them into Singapore, then the excise duty and GST payable takes on a new significance. The more expensive the wine, the higher the taxes involved and these additional costs have to be accounted for in your investment strategy.

Learn More: Sourcing The Finest Investment-Grade Wine

Excise Duty

The first type of alcohol tax in Singapore is excise duty, which is a tax levied on the importation of goods such as wine. The excise duty rates for wine are based on the alcohol content and volume of the wine. As of 2021, the excise duty rate for wine is $88 per litre of alcohol. This means that a 750ml bottle of wine with an alcohol content of 13% would be subject to an excise duty of $8.58.

Goods & Services Tax

On top of excise duty, there is also an 8% GST charged on imports into Singapore (as of 2023). The GST is calculated on top of the customs value and any excise duties that have to be paid. So using the example above, if your 750 ml bottle of wine with an ABV of 13% has a customs value of $100 (including costs, insurance, and freight), then the GST chargeable will be 8% of $108.58, which is $8.69.

Duty & GST Calculators

So when calculating the cost of purchasing wine in Singapore you have to take into account the customs value, excise duty rate, and the prevailing GST rate. If you are confused about any of this, there are multiple online tools such as GST calculators for Singapore which can be used.

To make things easier for our customers, we have our own duty calculator where you can input the number of bottles, quantity per bottle, alcohol strength, and CIF (cost, insurance and freight) value to find out how much duty is payable and the extra GST charges on top of that.

Understanding alcohol tax in Singapore is crucial for anyone looking to purchase wine for their own enjoyment or as part of their investment portfolio. By using our duty calculator, you can have up-to-date, accurate knowledge about the total cost of your wine purchase. With this information, you can make better decisions and ensure that you’re not overspending on your wine purchases.

At the Singapore Wine Vault, we have state-of-art facilities dedicated to preserving your wine bottles to ensure they are aged in the right conditions. Contact us today to learn more about our services and drop us a line with your queries.