Title 26 › Subtitle Subtitle E— Alcohol, Tobacco, and Certain Other Excise Taxes › Chapter 51— DISTILLED SPIRITS, WINES, AND BEER › Subchapter F— Bonded and Taxpaid Wine Premises › Part II— OPERATIONS › § 5362
Wine leaves a bonded wine cellar in two main ways. The normal way is paying the federal tax when it is withdrawn. But untaxed wine can also move "in bond" between bonded premises, meaning a bonded wine cellar or the bonded part of a distilled spirits plant, without the move counting as a taxable removal. Wine sent to a distilled spirits plant can be used to make a distilled spirits product but cannot leave that plant to be sold or drunk as wine, and the tax liability sticks with it until it is used in a spirits product. Untaxed wine can also be withdrawn without paying tax for export, transfer to a foreign-trade zone or customs bonded warehouse, use on certain vessels and aircraft, making vinegar, or distillation at an authorized plant. It can be withdrawn completely free of tax for scientific research at universities and research institutions, for the proprietor's own analysis and testing, and for use by the federal government or by state and local governments for testing and research. Wine made unfit for drinking can be withdrawn tax-free if it has no more than 21 percent alcohol by volume and is not used in beverage products. Wine in customs bonded warehouses may be withdrawn tax-free for the official or family use of foreign governments and diplomats who are entitled to that benefit, but that wine cannot be sold or used for anything else.
Full Legal Text
Internal Revenue Code — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
26 U.S.C. § 5362
Title 26 — Internal Revenue Code
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73