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Law on import duty clarified after backlash


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18 minutes ago, petemoss said:

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.

 

When we travel abroad, I'm the one shopping for food stuffs and personal care products that often, I simply can't buy here in Thailand regardless of price, and sometimes, because the items are cheaper in the U.S. because they're routine there but rare here.

 

The Thai wife is the one who's looking to bring back perfume, purses, cosmetics, shoes, etc... because the prices for the brand names she likes are invariably better in the U.S. than at the malls and department stores here... especially for the authentic items as opposed to fakes.

 

Most of the year, when we're staying here, she rarely buys much of anything for herself. But when we travel abroad together, that's her time to go on a mini personal shopping spree.... (in relatively modest amounts). :smile:

 

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16 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 ?

 

That was the suggestion at one time recently. They wanted everyone to list and photograph all the valuable items - watches, designer handbags, jewelry, phones, computers, tablets etc and provide the list to customs before leaving. Then they could be checked if you were stopped on the return.

 

They backed down rapidly following the mass criticism of such a dumb idea.

 

China used to be like that when I visited for business in the early 90's. You had to list everything you took in and show it was all exactly the same you brought out!

 

 

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19 minutes ago, onera1961 said:

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. 

They've already stopped coming. No work for the American save a ho Christian Evangelists, where are they going to get their free holidays now?

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So technically anyone that brings in personal goods like a laptop or watch will definitely go over the 20,000 THB mark. The will account for almost everyone that enters the country. If they started to impose import tariffs on used goods in everyday life, people will just go elsewhere.

 

Good luck with that one Thailand!

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3 hours ago, Bezdomny said:

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.

Reported. You’ll be deported soon. 

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2 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

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. 

DHL was the vendors choice, not something I had any control over if I wanted the goods.

 

For what its worth, I've made my feelings on the matter very clear to the vendor.

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Customs is just another blackmail scamming unit..

 

I once sent a 25kg shipment overseas to a customer and it was returned undelivered. The package was held at thai customs who said I would need to pay a stupid amount of tax to get it  delivered back otherwise it would be destroyed.

 

After I dissapproved and kicked up a fuss the customs agent called me to say if I pay him s lower fee directly he could clear it for me on the side.

 

What a scamming bunch of cronies the customs are, not even law abiding.

 

 

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9 hours 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 ??

I did the same thing, Delonghi Magnifica or something. Price was 11k in Europe and 40k in Homepro. Just take it out of the packaging, make some coffee with it etc. so you can say it's your old coffee machine from home. 

Or if you want to play it safe, I'd make a fake second hand invoice for the value of $150 or something. 

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2 hours ago, NightSky said:

Customs is just another blackmail scamming unit..

 

I once sent a 25kg shipment overseas to a customer and it was returned undelivered. The package was held at thai customs who said I would need to pay a stupid amount of tax to get it  delivered back otherwise it would be destroyed.

 

After I dissapproved and kicked up a fuss the customs agent called me to say if I pay him s lower fee directly he could clear it for me on the side.

 

What a scamming bunch of cronies the customs are, not even law abiding.

 

 

We used to live in a condo where 'mr big' lived who worked in customs at the port, not far away. He owned 4 condos and three expensive vehicles, not bad on just 40k a month

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14 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

So if you bring in lets say 3 or 4 perfumes for family members like I get asked to do that is now going to be taxed?

Perfume has historically had limitations in all countries as alcohol. Check duty free limits. If it's in your luggage, prolly ok. Excess at duty free might be an issue.

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The Customs areas, after the TG CDG flight arrives, can be a hoot.
 
~ ten extra female staff on hand-bag duty.
 
 
Better to pay the TG cabin staff a small import fee.
 
 
 
 

Some countries do not permit air-crew a duty free allowance for this very reason.
Thailand? I was in the Ginza Apple store a couple years ago. Saw Thai people buying armfuls of iPhones.
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Every time I come to My Dearest Beloved in Ubon, I bring a carry-on wheelie bag full of Thornton's chockies - almost an entire week's output for one of their factories.

 

Nothing else in the bag, and I leave the bag with MDB to dispose of as she considers appropriate when I go back (it only cost about 15 sobs so what the hell).

The boxes of chocolates are always gift wrapped and gift-labelled - personalised for each of my loved ones, and in all it probably cost about 150.00 sobs (in my English Sterling).

 

My friends and family would never, ever, ever come to the Big Family Night Out if they thought they would not get their box of pure English chocky, and if it was taxed up to the rib cage at customs, they and I would dip out on some serious family time, because I would simply leave it all there for the dear welcoming Customs Staff to enjoy.

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7 hours ago, SS1 said:

I did the same thing, Delonghi Magnifica or something. Price was 11k in Europe and 40k in Homepro. Just take it out of the packaging, make some coffee with it etc. so you can say it's your old coffee machine from home. 

Or if you want to play it safe, I'd make a fake second hand invoice for the value of $150 or something. 

 

Exact same machine... £299

Why does it have to be 2nd hand ?? 

Values below 20k for personal use !! 

I have the Amazon invoice showing 11k price...

My main concern is not getting damaged in the hold of the aircraft and by the baggage handlers ????

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20 hours ago, holy cow cm said:
21 hours 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?

 

21 hours 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. 

 

21 hours 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 decl

"Have you ever personally dealt with Customs face to face and seen their taxation lists?"

Yes, I have, to both of those questions, on three different occasions.   If there's anything that you need to know, such as the tariffs, all you have to do is call them and one of the English speakers on their help line will tell you the rates.

 

"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?"

You can think that the rate is 30% for everything if you want to, but that's not sensible as you'll be wrong as demonstrated by the examples given.   It's very easy to demonstrate that a laptop is used but that doesn't matter as laptop computers are exempt from import duty.  Anyone who is concerned about their possessions can always declare them on the way out or keep their receipts.

 

"Totally up to them". 

No, it's not totally up to them, it's up to the regulations that exist.

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21 hours ago, holy cow cm said:
22 hours 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. 

"...the tyranny here is that they will probably lump every traveler together who just bought some present abroad for their family etc..."

Personal items bought overseas that are subject to import duty are subject to import duty, it doesn't matter what the purpose of the purchase is!  It happens in your country also.

 

"I have no faith in the Customs being fair as from personal experiences..."

Strange that you didn't give any details of those bad personal experiences, care to expand on your statement?

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21 hours ago, nahkit said:

DHL was the vendors choice, not something I had any control over if I wanted the goods.

 

For what its worth, I've made my feelings on the matter very clear to the vendor.

I won't order from vendors who insist on using couriers, unless it is a high value item where I am resigned to paying tax and want the security of using a courier. Generally they are quite good for things like that, but hopeless for the lower value stuff.  If you order stuff from the US, you have the option of getting the vendor to ship domestically to one of the many freight forwarders like Shipito and Planet Express.  They offer some very reasonable airmail rates to Thailand using European carriers sending via Dubai, rather than by USPS over the Pacific.  There are similar services in the UK but I have never tried them as most things work out cheaper ordering from the US and I usually only use British vendors, if they will send by Royal Mail which works well and is reasonable.

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