Importing family inheritance to Thailand?

[OneMoreFarang]

I live and work (with B-Visa and work permit) since two decades in Thailand.

 

Now I am inheriting lots of things from the household of my parents. These might be personal things like pictures, household things like the family silver, dinnerware, an expensive hi-fi system, mechanic and electric tools from a workshop and lots of other things.

 

Can I import these things into Thailand without paying tax and customs duty? 

I know with some things, like i.e. furniture, it wouldn't make sense to ship them to Thailand. But other things, like the hi-fi system and tools are perfectly fine and I think about importing them. What are my options?

 

In theory I could sell these things "back home". But it's unlikely that I get an even half decent price for them. So basically my options are to import them or more or less give them away for free back home.

 

Please ignore Covid for a moment. This is not urgent - at least if there is no legal time limit for the import.

[uncleP]

Importing from where? Are they 220v?

[OneMoreFarang]

2 minutes ago, uncleP said:

Importing from where? Are they 220v?

It seems I forgot to mention it: Europe, EU

230V ???? 

[uncleP]

Searching suggests household items are subject to tax. Clothes,  books , shoes are ok if over six months old lol. I bought stuff on the plane easy enough but shipping may be problematic. 

[rbkk]

I'm not sure if this is helpful, but 20 years ago I had shipped, to Thailand, most of the (smaller) contents of my London house. "Personal effects" at 0% tax. Professional shipping company with no surprises. I would think if you inherit family items they are now your personel effects. I forget the number but the Customs Department have a helpline with English speakers.

[Oxx]

9 hours ago, rbkk said:

"Personal effects" at 0% tax.

 

There's a time limit of when you can do this.  From memory, it's 6 months after you get your first Non-imm visa.  It wouldn't apply in this case.

[Yellowtail]

I think you will have to pay duty and vat. Best bet might be to talk to a reputable relocator and see what they say.

[1FinickyOne]

If the hi-fi system is old, you might find better here, for not too great a price... things have gotten much cheaper through the years and better... and that might be one thing that gets taxed heavily... and taxes are likely much more open to interpretation of the individual inspector as any item can fall under many different categories, so, it is probably impossible to predict... this was always the case when importing into USA... 

[Mops59]

Ship in private container. Requires a list of the goods. When used goods value is almost zero. Tax calculated over value. So almost no Tax. Done it several times. Container to your doorstep on truck. Two hours loading yourself, driver is not helping. Container goes to harbour, on ship, comes into port, goes to shipping company, pay tax, and container will be delivered at your doorstep, unloading yourself. Driver helps for a tip. The only thing you have to do is to find a shipping company and to deliver the list of goods.

[Yellowtail]

If the value is almost zero the customs will apply their own estimated value. They are not fools, no one spends $5,000 to ship goods worth $100.

 

Duty is based on cost + freight, so if the goods have a value of $1,000, and the freight is $5000, and the duty is 20%. the duty is:

0.20 X $(1,000 + 5,000) = $1,200

 

VAT is based on cost + freight + duty, so if the goods have a value of $1,000, and the freight is $5000, and the duty is 20%, the VAT is:

0.07 X $(1,000 + 5,000 + 1,200) = $504

 

Different classes of goods have different duties, and there are thousands of classes. 

 

If you have a list a good freight forwarder or relocation service should be able to provide an idea of the duties.

 

You need to figure out what the stuff is worth to you. 

[moe666]

Unless it has a real personal value why bother with it. As long as you have been here you must already have tools and a hi-fi.

[ChrisKC]

Really don't know these days but in 2003 I had shipped - by ship, many personal effects from UK - no furniture, and before they would release them in Bangkok i was told I had to pay B30,000 in import tax ( there was no official valuation of my stuff) and I had to pay another B2000 to have them brought to Chiang Mai - and they wouldn't give me a receipt. And when they arrived my prized tiffany lamps were all broken.

 

if you try anything in the way of shipping into Thailand be prepared for anything!

[hotchilli]

On 11/17/2020 at 4:32 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

Can I import these things into Thailand without paying tax and customs duty? 

They'll screw you for everything they can.

From personal experience last year.

Edited November 18, 2020 by hotchilli

[mejomini]

3 years ago we brought in our household goods from the US. Since my wife is Thai,  the furniture and household goods were tax free and shipped under her name. She had to provide her Thai ID to clear customs. Other stuff, like tools and pictures were taxed by customs at a mysterious rate. As far as shipping, much of our possessions were damaged on arrival. The shipping insurance finally settled after 4 months. Good thing we had lots of photos from before and after. Make sure the stuff is worth the hassle and expense, and get full value insurance. Good luck.

[ChrisKC]

One More Farang,

 

It seems the consensus here is against your risking over-zealous customs and hassle. Have my time over again?  I would have auctioned my Tiffany lamps and left all but a few possessions behind, packed them and paid for excess baggage on the plane. In fact on my trip to Thailand, I brought a brand new PC from UK worth B50,000 then, computer with me. I declared it at customs on arrival and they didn't want to know!!

 

[Yellowtail]

The duty for most tools is pretty low, so if they are high quality they may be worth importing. The are also not easily damaged and easy to pack. You can ship them LTL sea freight pretty reasonable.

 

When I was working, it was much cheaper to buy quality tools & tooling  in the US and pay the duty here than than it was to buy them here. Keep in mind, if you buy imported stuff here, whomever you bought it from paid the duty, that's why the price is high...

[OneMoreFarang]

11 minutes ago, ChrisKC said:

One More Farang,

 

It seems the consensus here is against your risking over-zealous customs and hassle. Have my time over again?  I would have auctioned my Tiffany lamps and left all but a few possessions behind, packed them and paid for excess baggage on the plane. In fact on my trip to Thailand, I brought a brand new PC from UK worth B50,000 then, computer with me. I declared it at customs on arrival and they didn't want to know!!

 

Thanks

 

I almost expected answers like above but I had a little hope things might be better.

 

In general I don't like to throw away things if they still work. The hi-fi system and lots of tools which my father used are not new but work just fine. I am sure if I try to sell them over there I will get almost nothing or maybe I have to find someone who picks the things up for free. That hurts. And that's why I thought about bringing things to Thailand. So it seems I should do that only with the (personal) things which I really really want.

[adammike]

1 minute ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Thanks

 

I almost expected answers like above but I had a little hope things might be better.

 

In general I don't like to throw away things if they still work. The hi-fi system and lots of tools which my father used are not new but work just fine. I am sure if I try to sell them over there I will get almost nothing or maybe I have to find someone who picks the things up for free. That hurts. And that's why I thought about bringing things to Thailand. So it seems I should do that only with the (personal) things which I really really want.

There are charities that take tools.

[Yellowtail]

A lot of used stuff (particularly tools) sell very well and command good prices. I you have someone to help you you could try eBay. I was stuck in the US for five months this year and sold a bunch of tools and other stuff I had stored at a buddy's house. Made almost $6,000....

[khunPer]

From when I moved to Thailand, I remember one is allowed one surface shipment of personal items and household goods, and one air shipment. If you have not imported personal household before, you might be eligible for that.

 

Consider if it's worth the shipping costs, if not of purely sentimental value.

 

Expect a small duty and some v.a.t. to be paid, and make sure to have a very detailed packing list – including model and serial number for electronics – stating a value for each items.

[Speedhump]

I shipped in all my and my wife's effects in 2016. A 40 ft container, absolutely stuffed to the doors (the mattresses had to be jammed in to close the doors). Paid very little duty. All were used personal effects. International removal company who actually have their own Thai office so they know well how to handle customs officials. Door to door, removal company packed everything, and at this end unpacked everything we asked them to (the big furniture), even reassembled a huge 4 poster bed. Very little breakage, just a couple of clay pots. I was surprised. They accepted responsibility. 

 

For me, the key is paying up for a professional international company. 

[Lacessit]

Based on what other posters have said, I'd suggest you only import stuff that is basically unbreakable. IMO that excludes something like a hifi set.

[moogradod]

7 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Based on what other posters have said, I'd suggest you only import stuff that is basically unbreakable. IMO that excludes something like a hifi set.

If you have a Thai wife then take the chance by all means. We used a very professional shipment agency from Switzerland and their team packed even the most fragile glass structures in an unbreakable way. Consider that it might get hot in the container on its way and seal all the stuff to prevent salty air sneaking inside.

 

Worth bringing is everything that is not available here at all or at ridiculous prices. And this is more than you think. This includes high end audio reproduction systems, but excludes ice cube making machines. Every Family Mart will make those obsolete. But it includes ice cream making machines. More or less all kitchen related machinery. But strangely enough includes remote controlled fans as well. This even includes cooking pots like "Le Creuset" brands (too expensive here) and even spare parts like shearing heads for my Panasonic shaver (not available at all).

 

Your Thai wife may import things duty free only once in a lifetime. A remark will be in her passport after that. So research well. I made the mistake of not bringing enough and discard or sell things at discounted prices before moving.

[rbkk]

3 hours ago, ChrisKC said:

One More Farang,

 

It seems the consensus here is against your risking over-zealous customs and hassle. Have my time over again?  I would have auctioned my Tiffany lamps and left all but a few possessions behind, packed them and paid for excess baggage on the plane. In fact on my trip to Thailand, I brought a brand new PC from UK worth B50,000 then, computer with me. I declared it at customs on arrival and they didn't want to know!!

 

If I'm not mistaken used computers and 2nd hand computer parts are tax rated 0%.

[Yellowtail]

Just now, rbkk said:

If I'm not mistaken used computers and 2nd hand computer parts are tax rated 0%.

 

I do not believe anything are taxed at zero. It may be that the import duty is zero, but you would still have to pay VAT on cost and freight.