Import duty/customs from Australia for 1000U$ Synthesizer

[biwog]

Hi,

 

while research on the topic I found a link to this forum but as many times I've tried, the forum search is yielding 0 results. (Maybe a technical issue)

 

I recently bought an electronics device from Japan and it was just delivered. But on another item from the US I had to pay almost 2000 baht.

So if I buy a synth for around 1000U$ from Australia how do I estimate what and if I have to pay any import?

 

Kind regards

 

Biwog

[ezzra]

It all how you ship it over here, if it's declared in full value it will be flagged down by the custom, if it comes in with say, 200-300 value on it, shouldn't be too much of a hassle, refrain from using DHL or FedEX if you can ship it EMS...

[biwog]

Thanks for the reply.

 

11 minutes ago, ezzra said:

refrain from using DHL

Damn, that company does DHL only.

[Buffy Frobisher]

Can you buy the same device on Amazon US? I buy a lot of stuff from them, and they now estimate the duty based on your delivery address before you buy and add it to the price.

 

IF they manage to get the item through without Customs looking at it, they refund the money to your credit card. At first I thought it was a bit of a scam but went along with it, and to my surprise on all but 1 of the the last 7 shipments from the US they have dutifully refunded me the Customs money they took on the purchase after a couple of weeks. And the duty is never MORE than what they estimated. Seems to be an automated process. I guess they are so big now that even Customs officers give Amazon boxes some respect. 

 

I even had a 1 cent credit to my Amex card last week because the online price had changed by 1 cent between the time I made the purchase and the time they charged me. One other thing: their supply chain logistics are now so good that generally if I order on Friday it's delivered Monday morning. Brick and mortar stores don't stand a chance against this kind of efficiency in the long term. 

[CharlieH]

Dont use a courier of any description if it can be avoided. Not only will you pay duty you may also be charged a processing fee.

 

If its possible use the Post Office services.

 

There are online calculators for duty etc, one is shown in the pinned topic at the top of this forum, that will provide a guide.

 

 

[Sundown]

33 minutes ago, Buffy Frobisher said:

Can you buy the same device on Amazon US? I buy a lot of stuff from them, and they now estimate the duty based on your delivery address before you buy and add it to the price.

 

IF they manage to get the item through without Customs looking at it, they refund the money to your credit card. At first I thought it was a bit of a scam but went along with it, and to my surprise on all but 1 of the the last 7 shipments from the US they have dutifully refunded me the Customs money they took on the purchase after a couple of weeks. And the duty is never MORE than what they estimated. Seems to be an automated process. I guess they are so big now that even Customs officers give Amazon boxes some respect. 

 

I even had a 1 cent credit to my Amex card last week because the online price had changed by 1 cent between the time I made the purchase and the time they charged me. One other thing: their supply chain logistics are now so good that generally if I order on Friday it's delivered Monday morning. Brick and mortar stores don't stand a chance against this kind of efficiency in the long term. 

 

Unfortunately I was given a 200$ gift card for Amazon so I had to use it and ship items here in Thailand. Of those 200$ I ordered stuff for 120$ the rest was used for duties already paid to Amazon at checkout. I would never order from Amazon and ship to Thailand it's such a rip off. This is my experience though.

[biwog]

46 minutes ago, Buffy Frobisher said:

Can you buy the same device on Amazon US?

Unfortunately not.

[biwog]

15 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

There are online calculators for duty etc, one is shown in the pinned topic at the top of this forum, that will provide a guide.

Thanks a lot. The simplyduty one yielded a reasonable result after I supplied the HS code of a similar device.

[Mark1066]

18 hours ago, Buffy Frobisher said:

Can you buy the same device on Amazon US? I buy a lot of stuff from them, and they now estimate the duty based on your delivery address before you buy and add it to the price.

 

IF they manage to get the item through without Customs looking at it, they refund the money to your credit card. At first I thought it was a bit of a scam but went along with it, and to my surprise on all but 1 of the the last 7 shipments from the US they have dutifully refunded me the Customs money they took on the purchase after a couple of weeks. And the duty is never MORE than what they estimated. Seems to be an automated process. I guess they are so big now that even Customs officers give Amazon boxes some respect. 

 

I even had a 1 cent credit to my Amex card last week because the online price had changed by 1 cent between the time I made the purchase and the time they charged me. One other thing: their supply chain logistics are now so good that generally if I order on Friday it's delivered Monday morning. Brick and mortar stores don't stand a chance against this kind of efficiency in the long term. 

Trouble is, they've started adding import duty charges to items that would never attract any import duty. I asked them why they were adding these charges to orders that came to less than  ฿1,500 including delivery, and I got the usual scripted pidgin English replies, the gist of which was that I had no need to worry as they would refund me in 180 days. Absolute morons.

[Wongkitlo]

On 12/1/2020 at 12:08 PM, biwog said:

Hi,

 

while research on the topic I found a link to this forum but as many times I've tried, the forum search is yielding 0 results. (Maybe a technical issue)

 

I recently bought an electronics device from Japan and it was just delivered. But on another item from the US I had to pay almost 2000 baht.

So if I buy a synth for around 1000U$ from Australia how do I estimate what and if I have to pay any import?

 

Kind regards

 

Biwog

Is it new or second hand?  If it is second hand it is hard to value it. Customs wouldn't know the difference between a cheap keyboard or a synth. Maybe a friendly shop owner could give you a lower valuation.

[biwog]

1 hour ago, Wongkitlo said:

Is it new or second hand?

It's brand new

[Gulfsailor]

10% duty on the cost of the synthesizer plus shipping. Plus 7% VAT on all of the above. 

[Wongkitlo]

44 minutes ago, biwog said:

It's brand new

Nice. I was going to try and sell you my Roland Juno G ????

[biwog]

In the end I paid around 1.500 Baht.

[biwog]

Oh. Wrong machine. I paid 1.500 for another one that was 220 US$ including shipping.

[biwog]

On 12/2/2020 at 7:23 AM, Wongkitlo said:

Nice. I was going to try and sell you my Roland Juno G ????

555

That looks amazing but don't know if I'd be able to play that.