Law on import duty clarified after backlash

[Orton Rd]

7 minutes ago, NightSky said:

Buy them at Thai duty free on the way in maybe

Not a their prices it would be pointless, looks like the rules are open to interpretation or how did a Thai woman get charged 6k baht on soap that cost her 1500 aboard?

[LivinLOS]

13 hours ago, smedly said:

so what happens if you take a used item such as phone or laptop out of Thailand on a holiday to your home country and return with them 2 weeks later ?

 

Do you need to book them out ?

technically yes.. Same as if you send out items for warranty repair which cannot be done here. 

 

I once sent out (after obtaining local customs office permission) an 8k USD projector for service outside of the country.. what a ball ache that was to get back. 

[Bezdomny]

Once I brought new speaker cabinet for guitar. Knowing what to expect I had a fake invoice which said: 2nd hand speaker worth of 50$. I showed the girl at CM airport custom, she wrote me invoice for 300 Thb import duty tax. She never bother to check the speaker or check for price online.

[LomSak27]

13 hours ago, smedly said:

so what happens if you take a used item such as phone or laptop out of Thailand on a holiday to your home country and return with them 2 weeks later ?

 

Do you need to book them out ?

The US used to have an 600 or 800 USD line/limit before charging tax or duty on OS purchases ... or they could at that point .... HOWEVER with the advent of expensive personel electronics, such as smart phones, laptops, tablets, I pods, cameras,  etc etc etc. They excluded those, and most countries in the world did the same. Too many people have them, it would be a massive clustermump ZOO if they did want to check them all.

Thailand of course maybe different   But I doubt it. They will find other things to make some money on. hahaha

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

53 minutes ago, ezzra said:

Well put... just take a look and learn the case of king power people who railroaded all the other contenders for the duty free operations in all Thai airports, they put on a pile of cash one table regardless of the others just to be able to be in this very lucrative business for another decade, now this is only one example of how powerful and dominant some business are in this country...

 

I've never yet found any product/deal that I'd want to buy from King Power because I thought it was a good price/value compared to what I can find elsewhere, especially at their airport locations.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

33 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

Not a their prices it would be pointless, looks like the rules are open to interpretation or how did a Thai woman get charged 6k baht on soap that cost her 1500 aboard?

 

I don't have any experience with Customs at the airport, but I do in terms of their handling of imported packages by mail.

 

And in that realm, they basically make up their own declared value that they use as the basis for tax and duty, and it doesn't matter that you have purchase documentation showing the actual price you paid. They seem basically uninterested in that.

 

[Fex Bluse]

14 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

20,000 baht is nothing. But the tax they will impose of anything over that could be quite pricey and it will probably feel like unjustified rape which could probably get real ugly with many people. My computer, watch, telephone, or musical instruments each cost more than the max. Sounds like the vultures are really hungry. 

Some have said all the signs of government insolvency are evident. 

 

They are clutching for cash everywhere. 

 

begging for Tourism 

begging for FDI 

forcing expats to lock baht up in banks

forcing expats into scam insurance 

forcing tourists into insurance

 

Many others. 

 

I think the house of cards is starting to tumble. 

 

[RichardColeman]

Have to laugh if they start charging tax for breast implants !

[Ulic]

Any complaints left on the answering machine will be deleted hourly as will any complaints sent on the LINE APP. 

[Arkady]

30 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I don't have any experience with Customs at the airport, but I do in terms of their handling of imported packages by mail.

 

And in that realm, they basically make up their own declared value that they use as the basis for tax and duty, and it doesn't matter that you have purchase documentation showing the actual price you paid. They seem basically uninterested in that.

 

I have had this experience that an item declared at its correct purchase price with the genuine invoice in the package was arbitrarily assessed by postal customs at much higher and charged import duty at 30%  + VAT when it should have been 10% + VAT. It was one of those that you have to go to the post office to collect and there seemed no point in arguing with the post office staff who have no say in the matter. On the other hand I have been summoned to the postal customs HQ in Chaenwattana on two occasions and treated fairly both times.  This is the situation when you are given your package which has already been opened and resealed and a box cutter to open it in front of the officer.  On both occasions I was asked for the value and showed her a receipt I brought with me (she didn't look for at the declared value or for an invoice in the package) and charged 10% + VAT based on the value I showed her. 

[Fex Bluse]

1 hour ago, paulbrow said:

I'm not sure what all the fuss is here. The Thai import personal limit of approximately US$600 is 50% more than the US limit of $400. Doesn't every country limit how much you can bring back home with you? Technically this should be applied to Thais coming home. As a foreigner coming in, I'm not sure how it applies, but typically common sense should prevail, not many travelers need 50 or 100 of anything while traveling. It also seems like we are talking about "New" items, not used items. As far as determining "value", if you retain your sales receipts, this should certainly help determine the value of an item. Exception of course is if you are attempting to bring something in illegally. All in all, it seems like a lot of tadu about nothing .

Thais are complaining for a couple reasons:

 

1. Thais have historically circumvented the import laws in great numbers.

 

I have a couple female friends who are THAI Air flight attendants who started entire businesses running goods tax/duty free. One runs a wine shop with wines smuggled into Thailand. 

 

2. Thais, even more so than we farang, don't trust other Thais in positions of power - such as customs. 

 

Customs is infamous for overcharging and corruption in Thailand. 

 

 

As always, they make their own problems. 

[nahkit]

24 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I don't have any experience with Customs at the airport, but I do in terms of their handling of imported packages by mail.

 

And in that realm, they basically make up their own declared value that they use as the basis for tax and duty, and it doesn't matter that you have purchase documentation showing the actual price you paid. They seem basically uninterested in that.

 

I recently ordered 2 mens shirts and 4 childrens shirts from the UK, total cost 3,276 baht (plus 420 delivery). Once the package arrived in Bangkok I was contacted by DHL and asked to pay a further 1,783.90 baht made up of customs duty, 7% VAT and an admin fee for DHL. So why is it that passengers can carry in up to 20,000 baht worth of goods and I get hit for bringing in less than 5,000 baht worth?  Stripping out the VAT and DHL admin fee, I was charged 37% tax on the clothing. Especially annoying to be paying 7% VAT on an import tax, so being taxed on a tax. Nice little earner for DHL though, original delivery charge was quoted as 420 baht and their admin fee increased that by 50%.

[Arkady]

It seems that there is no new law and maybe nothing new apart from the news of the scanners to be installed to search for commercial goods in luggage. It is not clear that there has been an upsurge in customs searches at international airports or whether the report is on the situation that has prevailed in recent years.  My observation is that customs tend to focus on luggage of Thais, who one assumes they expect to be likely to smuggling high value hand bags and stuff, and Indians, as well as other foreigners of colour, who may be suspected of bringing in narcotics & etc. Many Indians go, or used to go, on package tours to Singapore and Thailand and buy electronic consumer goods in Singapore to sell back home and cover the cost of their trips. They can be easy pickings for the customs officers, if they haven't gone to the red zone and declared their goods on the way in.  Farangs who look like tourists or businessmen are less likely to have anything of interest to customs but things could change, or maybe have already. 

[cornishcarlos]

I've just bought a coffee machine on Amazon in U.K, cost 11k baht. Same machine here costs 35k baht !! I'll be bringing it back with me next month, just need to work out how to protect it from the crazy baggage handlers ????

 

Technically, it cost less than 20k but do I risk getting hit for import duty ??

[Fex Bluse]

12 minutes ago, nahkit said:

I recently ordered 2 mens shirts and 4 childrens shirts from the UK, total cost 3,276 baht (plus 420 delivery). Once the package arrived in Bangkok I was contacted by DHL and asked to pay a further 1,783.90 baht made up of customs duty, 7% VAT and an admin fee for DHL. So why is it that passengers can carry in up to 20,000 baht worth of goods and I get hit for bringing in less than 5,000 baht worth?  Stripping out the VAT and DHL admin fee, I was charged 37% tax on the clothing. Especially annoying to be paying 7% VAT on an import tax, so being taxed on a tax. Nice little earner for DHL though, original delivery charge was quoted as 420 baht and their admin fee increased that by 50%.

It has been suggested for years that Thai DHL, Thai FEDEX and similar 'work' with customs to extract these questionable fees. 

 

I would avoid using them whenever possible. 

[cornishcarlos]

24 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Have to laugh if they start charging tax for breast implants !

 

Majority of them are for commercial use though ????

[DrTuner]

A wedding ring is more than 20k. Very few would be able to pass the customs under a 20k limit if they really counted. It's by design so they can extort tea money for themselves. Double welcome to Thailand, after passing the IO that looked like a bear shot in the arse, next step fleecing station.

[Just Weird]

14 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

20,000 baht is nothing. But the tax they will impose of anything over that could be quite pricey and it will probably feel like unjustified rape which could probably get real ugly with many people. My computer, watch, telephone, or musical instruments each cost more than the max. Sounds like the vultures are really hungry. 

...the tax they will impose of anything over that could be quite pricey..."

The tax rates are published in the article! 

 

"My computer, watch, telephone, or musical instruments each cost more than the max".

They are aiming at taxing undeclared items that have clearly been purchased overseas and are being brought in! 

They're not going to be applying import duty on your personal phone unless it seems to be new and likely to have been bought on your trip overseas!  If you're so concerned, declare your valuables when you leave or have receipts available.  Laptop computers are not subject to import duty.  

 

"Sounds like the vultures are really hungry". 

Sounds more like they are trying to catch people deliberately and illegally trying to avoid paying import duty

 

[Dogmatix]

9 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

Thais are complaining for a couple reasons:

 

1. Thais have historically circumvented the import laws in great numbers.

 

I have a couple female friends who are THAI Air flight attendants who started entire businesses running goods tax/duty free. One runs a wine shop with wines smuggled into Thailand. 

 

2. Thais, even more so than we farang, don't trust other Thais in positions of power - such as customs. 

 

Customs is infamous for overcharging and corruption in Thailand. 

 

 

As always, they make their own problems. 

 

Customs like to overcharge, not to make more money for the state but to encourage the customer to offer a bribe to reduce the tax.  Mostly the state gets cheated by its own customs officers.   Same thing happens in the Land Office where a huge amount is collected in cash daily.  Land officers take bribes to reduce the tax liability by falsifying the appraised value or some other subterfuge that is easily done because the management is complicit.  i have seen this on more than one occasion.  When I imported my household effects years ago, supposedly duty free, I was asked for an unreceipted bribe by the customs.  I was told by the agent that not paying up might encourage customs to open up all of my boxes and be sure to break stuff in revenge.  So it they were basically thugs extorting protection money. 

[userabcd]

5 minutes ago, Fex Bluse said:

It has been suggested for years that Thai DHL, Thai FEDEX and similar 'work' with customs to extract these questionable fees. 

 

I would avoid using them whenever possible. 

One could surmise that they are extensions of the customs department just as banks are becoming extensions of the tax office.

[Isaan sailor]

Thailand: taking the fun out of your life, one agency after another.

[Dogmatix]

21 minutes ago, nahkit said:

I recently ordered 2 mens shirts and 4 childrens shirts from the UK, total cost 3,276 baht (plus 420 delivery). Once the package arrived in Bangkok I was contacted by DHL and asked to pay a further 1,783.90 baht made up of customs duty, 7% VAT and an admin fee for DHL. So why is it that passengers can carry in up to 20,000 baht worth of goods and I get hit for bringing in less than 5,000 baht worth?  Stripping out the VAT and DHL admin fee, I was charged 37% tax on the clothing. Especially annoying to be paying 7% VAT on an import tax, so being taxed on a tax. Nice little earner for DHL though, original delivery charge was quoted as 420 baht and their admin fee increased that by 50%.

The B20,000 exemption applies to items hand carried by passengers, not to goods shipped by courier.  The import duty on garments is 30% charged on a cost, insurance and freight basis and 7% VAT is added on to the whole lot.  The courier's, clearing, handling and storage costs are its own fees.  

 

On the other hand exemption from import duty and VAT under the current law is granted for packages under the value of B1,500 sent by post only, not be courier.  If you had broken your order into packages of less then B1,500 value and had them sent by post, you could legitimately have avoided all Thai tax.  You might have paid more for shipping, although airmail rates tend to be less than DHL.  Very occasionally postal customs will decide to open a package and assess it at more than B1,500 but that has only happened to me twice, I think, in the course of a few hundred airmail packages over the years. Under the military government the Finance Ministry tried to get this B1,500 exemption repealed, citing the volume of e-commerce coming in tax free from China undercutting Thai vendors.  Fortunately the government ran out of time but with the same people in charge now at the Finance Ministry, it may well be revived.  So you should enjoy the exemption while it still lasts and not order any more goods via courier. 

[Dogmatix]

31 minutes ago, cornishcarlos said:

I've just bought a coffee machine on Amazon in U.K, cost 11k baht. Same machine here costs 35k baht !! I'll be bringing it back with me next month, just need to work out how to protect it from the crazy baggage handlers ????

 

Technically, it cost less than 20k but do I risk getting hit for import duty ??

For some vendors and products Amazon has a system of pre-charging for overseas tax.  I ordered a Bluray player from Amazon UK to play some European discs I couldn't otherwise play. It was not too expensive and I paid the Thai import duty and VAT in advance after checking it was at the correct rate. It was cleared through customs and sent to my door without any further charges or fees. I have noticed that Ebay US offered a similar service but it seems to cause delays as the vendor has to ship the product to some processing centre in the US that charges them handling fees.  I have not tried it and have no plans to do so. 

 

Obviously you don't want to use the pre-paid tax services for any goods that are under B1,500 value and can benefit from the Thai tax exemption, if sent by mail.  In this case the pre-paid services expect you to claim the tax back from your local tax authorities which I am sure would be impossible in Thailand.

 

 

[petemoss]

15 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

I wonder how they're going to apply these rules -- if they apply them -- to things like food products.

 

One package of oatmeal, and anything more is considered commercial and subject to duty? One box of teabags and anything more is considered commercial and subject to duty? One bottle of hot sauce and anything more is considered commercial and subject to duty? Etc. etc?

I always bring back 4 large jars of Marmite, my prescription medication and as many packets of crumpets that I can fit in my suitcase. Am i now going to be accused of being a Marmite trafficker or a crumpet dealer?

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

1 minute ago, petemoss said:

I always bring back 4 large jars of Marmite, my prescription medication and as many packets of crumpets that I can fit in my suitcase. Am i now going to be accused of being a Marmite trafficker or a crumpet dealer?

Should be a long prison sentence for smuggling that horrible tasting stuff ????

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

6 minutes ago, petemoss said:

I always bring back 4 large jars of Marmite, my prescription medication and as many packets of crumpets that I can fit in my suitcase. Am i now going to be accused of being a Marmite trafficker or a crumpet dealer?

 

I do the same, with my OWN style food stuffs... And the OP article doesn't give much clue how they're going to treat foodstuff quantities....

 

Like others I suspect, I keep and eat everything in the way of food stuffs I ever bring back from trips abroad. Not running a food imports business.  But whether Customs will understand that when they see my bottles of hot sauce or boxes of oatmeal, who knows!

 

[cornishcarlos]

12 minutes ago, Dogmatix said:

Obviously you don't want to use the pre-paid tax services for any goods that are under B1,500 value

 

Or for products that I will bring back in a suitcase ????

[petemoss]

9 minutes ago, HiSoLowSoNoSo said:

Should be a long prison sentence for smuggling that horrible tasting stuff ????

Actually, I mainly bring back the Marmite and crumpets for my Thai wife, she loves both and always makes me promise to bring her some back when i return to the UK. Crumpets particularly, she insists that I send her a photo of them packed in my suitcase before I return. She eats most of them.

 

If I returned home without the crumpets and I told her that Thai customs had confiscated them, she simply wouldn't believe me. My life wouldn't be worth living.

[holy cow cm]

11 minutes ago, Just Weird said:

..the tax they will impose of anything over that could be quite pricey..."

The tax rates are published in the article! 

 

That is only a vague posting of what is taxed and leaves everything else guessing on how much. Have you ever personally dealt with Customs face to face and seen their taxation lists?

 

11 minutes ago, Just Weird said:

They are aiming at taxing undeclared items that have clearly been purchased overseas and are being brought in! 

They're not going to be applying import duty on your personal phone unless it seems to be new and likely to have been bought on your trip overseas!  If you're so concerned, declare your valuables when you leave or have receipts available.  Laptop computers are not subject to import duty

The point is the capping of personal items at 20,000 baht is going to net a lot of pocket money for them, and it is them against you - Thai and Foreigners alike. And BTW, they only list a few of the items with their taxation fees on their list thus leaving all the rest to speculation and what their list will state the cost of the item, no matter if it is an old outdated price. Might as well think most items are 30%. 4 year old apple that looks new will not be the same as a new apple and who are you to say anything opposed to them and their police status? And where do they start the taxation? On the amount after the 20k cap?, or on the cost their list tells them of being a new product? Totally up to them. 

 

11 minutes ago, Just Weird said:

 

"Sounds like the vultures are really hungry". 

Sounds more like they are trying to catch people deliberately and illegally trying to avoid paying import duty

 

There is something within reason for that purpose of catching people, and it is easy to tell the ones who are doing that to profit. But the tyranny here is that they will probably lump every traveler together who just bought some present abroad for their family etc or will make some accusations to some people who have their own items on them. I have no faith in the Customs being fair as from personal experiences, and why would you declare personal items if they are personal items. 

[onera1961]

Don't worry Thailand. Keep your brothels (aka bars) open and shamelessly pimp your daughters to older sexpats, they will keep coming. Your reputation as a Land of Sex (LOS) is already established. Nothing to worry.