Can Alcohol Be Shipped to Indiana? Only Wine, and Only With a Permit

Shipping alcohol to Indiana is tightly restricted: only wine can be sent directly to a consumer, and only by a winery that holds a Direct Wine Seller’s Permit from the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission (ATC). Beer and distilled spirits cannot be shipped directly to Indiana consumers by common carrier under current law.¹

Wine Is the Only Product That Can Ship Directly

The Direct Wine Seller’s Permit is the one permit in Indiana’s alcohol code that authorizes delivery by common carrier to a consumer’s door.² Other permit types, including those held by liquor dealers, limit delivery to the permit holder or their employees and do not allow common-carrier shipping.¹ A craft brewery or distillery hoping to send its product to an Indiana customer has no legal path to do so through the mail or a delivery service.

The permit is also limited to producers shipping their own product. Wine sent to Indiana under a Direct Wine Seller’s Permit must have been manufactured, produced, or bottled by the permit holder. The permit doesn’t let a third-party retailer forward someone else’s wine.²

Getting the Direct Wine Seller’s Permit

A winery must hold the permit before it ships a single bottle into Indiana. It runs on an annual cycle and must be renewed each year. The annual fee is tiered by expected shipping volume for the permit year:³

$100 for up to 9,000 liters
$200 for up to 18,000 liters
$300 for up to 27,000 liters
$400 for up to 36,000 liters
$500 for up to 45,000 liters

A new applicant estimates its anticipated volume; a returning applicant certifies what it actually shipped the previous year. No direct wine seller may ship more than 45,000 liters total into Indiana in a single permit year.⁴

How a Compliant Shipment Must Look

The outside of every shipping container must be stamped, printed, or labeled with the exact statement: “CONTAINS WINE. SIGNATURE OF PERSON AGE 21 OR OLDER REQUIRED FOR DELIVERY.”² The wording is prescribed, not suggested.

Delivery has to go to one of four places: the consumer’s home, their business address, the carrier’s business address, or an address the consumer designates on the shipping container. Whoever accepts the package must be either the consumer who placed the order or someone at least 21 years old.⁵

Before the sale, the consumer has to provide a name, a valid delivery address and phone number, and proof of age through a government-issued ID. The winery can verify the ID in person, by photocopy, by electronic transmission, or through a third-party age verification service.²

There’s also a per-consumer ceiling. No more than 216 liters of wine may be shipped to any single consumer in a calendar year.²

The Carrier Also Needs a Permit

Every shipment must move through a carrier that holds a valid Carrier’s Alcoholic Beverage Permit under IC 7.1-3-18. The larger national carriers usually hold one; smaller or regional operators may not. The winery is responsible for directing the carrier to check the recipient’s age at delivery, and the carrier must confirm the person accepting the package is at least 21.² A carrier that violates delivery rules faces administrative penalties of up to $1,000 per violation.⁶

Taxes on Direct Wine Shipments

Direct wine sellers remit Indiana excise, sales, and use taxes to the Indiana Department of State Revenue monthly, covering the prior month’s shipments.² The wine excise tax rate is $0.47 per gallon.⁷ Sales tax applies on top of that, which is easy to miss for a winery that hasn’t collected Indiana sales tax before.

Permit holders also have to keep records of all direct-shipping sales for at least two years and produce them to the ATC on request.²

What Happens if Someone Ships Without Authorization

Indiana enforces its shipping rules through both criminal charges and administrative fines.

Criminal Charges

A vintner, distiller, brewer, or importer holding a federal basic permit that knowingly ships alcohol into Indiana in violation of state law commits a Class A misdemeanor, which carries up to 365 days in jail and a fine of up to $5,000. Unauthorized shipping by someone who doesn’t hold a federal basic permit is a Level 6 felony, with potential prison time beyond the one-year misdemeanor cap.⁸

Administrative Fines

The ATC’s fine schedule varies by permit type and violation:⁶

Illegal shipment by a brewer, distiller, or artisan distiller: up to $4,000
Illegal shipment by a wholesaler: up to $2,000
Illegal shipment by other permit holders: up to $1,000
Selling and shipping wine without a valid Direct Wine Seller’s Permit: up to $1,000
Violating delivery requirements: up to $1,000
Artisan distiller shipping to consumers: up to $4,000

The last line reinforces the boundary: shipping spirits to an Indiana consumer isn’t merely unsupported by the code, it’s a separately penalized violation.

Sacramental Wine

Indiana law provides one narrow exception. A pastor, rabbi, minister, or priest may purchase, possess, and dispense wine for sacramental purposes or religious rites without holding any permit under Indiana’s alcohol code.⁹ Sales of wine to clergy for sacramental or religious use are also exempt from the wine excise tax.¹⁰ The exemption reaches individual clergy acting in a religious capacity. It doesn’t extend broadly to religious organizations as institutions, and it doesn’t reach beer or spirits.

1
Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission. Advisory Opinion 19-07
2
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 7.1-3-26-9 – Direct Wine Seller
3
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 7.1-3-26-8 – Permit Expiration, Renewal, and Fees
4
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 7.1-3-26-12 – Annual Limit on Sellers Direct Wine Sales in Indiana
5
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 7.1-3-26-13 – Delivery to Consumer or Individual at Least 21 Years of Age
6
Legal Information Institute. 905 IAC 2-2-4 – Schedule of Fines and Penalties
7
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 7.1-4-4-1 – Rate of Tax
8
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 7.1-5-11-1.5 – Shipments of Alcoholic Beverages to Residents Without Valid Wholesaler Permits, Violations
9
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 7.1-3-1-24 – Religious Exemption
10
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 7.1-4-4-6 – Transactions Exempt From Tax