Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Jonephant]

Has anyone had any experience at importing a case or two of their favourite beer or alcaholic beverage to Korea? Im from Bristol and id love a Black Rat cider. Are there taxes to be paid? Also does anyone know of a good website for purchasing?

Thanks

[ttompatz]

[coralreefer_1]

Just to further what was said, I was looking into this myself a few years ago for my own business interests.

As I recall from the research I did back then (keep in mind this was a few years ago so may have changed) alcohol imported into the country is taxed at 125% of value. On top of that, if you were to be importing some type of beer that has otherwise never been imported before (such as the craft beers we all wish we had) they have to undergo a rather expensive government chemical analysis before an importation permit for bulk quantities would be issued, or otherwise released from customs.

Again, this is more for "importation" rather than the casual traveler bringing it over.

[Jake_Kim]

As far as the law goes, there's no discrimination between beer/ale and spirits for taxation (well, at different rates, but taxable regardless) both being alcoholic beverages to be measured up against the quantity limit.
In reality, however, customs officials don't really give much crap about a suitcase full of beers, because the gross total of duty they can charge you is negligible compared to those bottles of pricey whiskeys and cognacs people try to sneak in everyday. They surely 'know' that you're bringing in that much beer beyond the limit in your checked-in baggage just by looking at their x-rays, but they just let you pass 99.9 out of 100 times without a word.
The only variety of cider within the scope of mass market distribution in South Korea is Strongbow, as far as I know. Besides, when you look for 'cider' in this country, almost all Koreans would assume that you're looking for a soda, e.g. Sprite. Pack whatever you can when you can.