Customs wants to know about work laptop

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

36 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Those members reports of that nature are, of course, nonsense.    If refusing delivery (due to duty being applied) means the duty and VAT is just cancelled and the item is then delivered anyway everyone would be doing it and there'd be no need for duty to be levied.   

 

Perhaps you missed the post below that exactly paralleled the prior reports I had mentioned above:

 

  

41 minutes ago, Skinny Boy said:

I didn't get it that day but it did arrive several days later and I paid nothing. My company were not charged either. In the end I guess it was worth a day out at the airport ! TiT !

 

[Liverpool Lou]

7 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

45 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Those members reports of that nature are, of course, nonsense.    If refusing delivery (due to duty being applied) means the duty and VAT is just cancelled and the item is then delivered anyway everyone would be doing it and there'd be no need for duty to be levied.   

 

Perhaps you missed the post below that exactly paralleled the prior reports I had mentioned above

Perhaps you didn't notice that the post you referred to was not the same situation of a courier company overcharging duty.   His item was at Customs and FedEx advised him of it, he went and as a result he wasn't charged anything by Customs and had his item delivered.   

 

That is not exactly parallelling the case of refusing delivery because of duty being payable and then having the courier deliver it free of duty later.   Duty payable items are not delivered anyway if you initially just refuse to pay legitimately assessed items.

[sometimewoodworker]

55 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

I doubt that any courier company has charged you a B7,000 admin/distribution charge on an item ordered from overseas that they'd delivered to you.   Duty and VAT are not couriers admin charges.

You can believe anything you like. I know the difference between duty, VAT and customs clearance/administration fees. The 7,000 was on top of the changes from Thai customs

[Liverpool Lou]

11 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

1 hour ago, Liverpool Lou said:

I doubt that any courier company has charged you a B7,000 admin/distribution charge on an item ordered from overseas that they'd delivered to you.   Duty and VAT are not couriers admin charges.

You can believe anything you like. I know the difference between duty, VAT and customs clearance/administration fees. The 7,000 was on top of the changes from Thai customs

So, clarify, just so that we are talking about the same subject, this was on an item bought overseas and delivered to you by the seller using a courier company in Thailand?  What was the item?   

Edited September 29, 2021 by Liverpool Lou

[hanuman2543]

2 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

No, I do not "stand corrected".  The subject of my comments was personal items purchased online, or sent from overseas, such as a laptop, via a courier company, being incorrectly assessed for import duty.   Your links do not relate to my comments.

Your typical lousy excuse when somebody proofs you wrong. You are making things up nothing more and you can't admit when you are wrong.  The OP got the laptop sent to him by his employer. How is that importing personal items? Last time when I wrote about importing my dog sent from overseas you said the same. Are you covered in teflon?

Edited September 29, 2021 by hanuman2543

[Golden Triangle]

I'm expecting a watch to be sent by the UK manufacturers in the next few days, I have paid in full and the company [ Bremont ] has already paid the duties & taxes 5%: £84.79 plus 7% vat £124.64.

 

They are used to shipping to Thailand as they have outlets here, it was a special price for serving or previous members of a specialised military trade.

 

Hopefully Thai customs & FedeX won't have the gall to increase those already paid duties & taxes.

[sometimewoodworker]

1 hour ago, Liverpool Lou said:

So, clarify, just so that we are talking about the same subject, this was on an item bought overseas

Delivered from overseas, yes.

1 hour ago, Liverpool Lou said:

delivered to you using a courier company

An international courier company’s Thai branch.

 

1 hour ago, Liverpool Lou said:

What was the item?

The details of the item is irrelevant and I am not interested in satisfying your curiosity.

 

It was not anything special in regard to the duty and other taxes or import restrictions.

[G Rex]

I had a bit of a rant about a similar experience a few weeks ago. A vendor from HK sent me an item via DHL. They understated the value of the item - and I was fined for their indiscretion.  It is up to me to try to get my money back from them! Fat chance!!

Anyway - 3 weeks later.   I had issues with the original item purchased , so needed to do further business with this company.  Again - they understated value!  Again they used DHL!!!   OMG - I am a slow learner (but I can only buy this stuff from this vendor) .

I received an email from DHL , asking me for proof of value (receipt - not invoice). They said that this was needed for customs.valuation in case of 'random inspection'.

Surprise surprise - my item was inspected by customs in their 'random inspection'.

So now I have to pay duty,VAT & a fine to customs , and a handling fee & storage fee to DHL

I let DHL know my displeasure , and contacted the vendor - who will now use Thai special line logistics for future shipments to LOS.

I have had 5 items sent from various countries to me by DHL this year - every one has been inspected by customs , & additional fees have been payable to DHL in every case - this is hardly 'random inspection' . IMO this is collusion.   I am not that lucky.

I know Liverpool Lou will have an answer for this , but TBH - I could not give a rats rectum for his thoughts.

Edited September 29, 2021 by G Rex

[natway09]

If declared as a "work computer" I assume you are gainfully employed with WP ?

[Hal65]

The declared value was $1,300, putting me over the 40,000 thb limit customs hases for hassle free entry. I need to pay for an import license and expensive inspection, holding fees, pickup fees. 

 

One Thai customs broker quoted 25,000 thb all in. Another foreign managed broker gave me an itemized bill for 20,000 thb or so, their fee being 1,700 thb. 15,000 thb goes towards the inspection fee.

 

Painful but my employer will reimburse me.

[Dogmatix]

Don't use couriers to send stuff to Thailand. Either send it by mail and declare at less than 1,500 to avoid Thai taxes and risk losing it or buy locally. Couriers have no exemption from import tax and VAT but Thailand Post does under 1,500.  Most packages are not opened and come straight through but if you are unlucky you will be asked to come and pay tax on the price they assess from looking online.

 

If over B40k you have to register in the paperless customs system which involves giving your actually passport to the courier and pay some extra fees for clearance but the tax rate is the same.  It also takes about a week to clear. 

 

I don't understand what the B20k importer fee is.  Sounds like BS to me. You are allowed to import computer equipment as a private individual. 

[Hal65]

I'm guessing the 15,000 thb inspection fee is a bribe given the dollar amount, and speed which it passes. 

 

Here are the normal fees and clearance times. As you can see it is much cheaper, but the normal way can take 2 weeks.

 

-          Clearance charges              428 THB

-          Custom fees                          200 THB

-          Duty & Tax + Vat 7 % determine by Thai Customs

-          Amendment (If any)             1420 THB
-          Duty handling fees                  2% (Mins 185 THB)
-          Daily storage charge              1.25 THB / KGS / Day (Mins 100 THB)

 

[Hal65]

3 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

Most packages are not opened and come straight through but if you are unlucky you will be asked to come and pay tax on the price they assess from looking online.

Is the declared value ignored then? My company opted to have the first laptop returned and send out another one. It's also coming via Fedex and the declared value this time is $700 (24,000 thb per Google).

 

I don't mind paying the import tax but what would harm us is if they try to hold it again to do some sort of "private assesment" or some other BS. I need that laptop to come to me without interruption.

[Liverpool Lou]

14 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

16 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

What was the item?

The details of the item is irrelevant and I am not interested in satisfying your curiosity.

You wouldn't have been "satisfying my curiosity", you would have been clarifying a situation that may not have been related to my comments, a situation that you seem to want o remain vague about!   

[DaveSamutP]

21 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

It has been a recurring subject here, that's all, and so far, not one poster who has accused the courier companies of incorrect duties on items purchased/sent from overseas using couriers has been able to show anything empirical to back their accusations.   As you "suspect it's a racket", is it safe to assume that you've got something to back up your suspicions?

Perhaps there is no tendency toward corruption at all in any of the couriers. 

 

I mean, this is Thailand after all. Corruption is virtually unheard of here. 

[sometimewoodworker]

9 hours ago, Hal65 said:

Is the declared value ignored then

If the customs agent wants to, yes it is ignored and the item is looked up and it is charged in the highest figure the officer wishes, you can possibly appeal the valuation. Customs officers are well aware that items often have a fake value declaration, I don’t know that they will overvalue an item but they have very wide discretion.

[sometimewoodworker]

3 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

You wouldn't have been "satisfying my curiosity", you would have been clarifying a situation that may not have been related to my comments, a situation that you seem to want o remain vague about!   

To reiterate the item concerned is NOYB, however you wriggle to claim that FedEx Thailand and to a slightly lesser extent DHL Thailand charge exorbitant fees on some/many private shipments.
 

With large companies shipping via DHL there is no problem. It may also be the case the FedEx piracy is also controlled in the same situation.

[richard_smith237]

Last year I ordered an Item of Clothing from the Thai NEXT website - the item was approximately 900 baht + shipping (a negligible amount) to about 1100 baht

 

DHL contacted us informing us that Thai customs intercepted the delivery and were charging approximately 800 baht - the item including all shipping insurance etc was well below the 1500 baht import tax cut off. 

 

We had to pay. A very frustrating situation as something definitely seemed off but we had no real recourse.

 

We usually just order such items to the UK and family remove the labels and send them over by regular post. 

Football boots, small items of clothing, medicine etc...  

 

Stuff ONLY gets stopped by customs if its sent by DHL or FedEx....  its a big red flag to them. 

 

 

http://www.customs.go.th/list_strc_simple_neted.php?ini_content=individual_160503_03_160922_01&lang=en&left_menu=menu_individual_submenu_01_160421_02

 

 

[JohnB1945]

I sometime buy pipe tobacco from a US company, as it is vastly over-priced here, and you can't get the brand I like.  Usually I buy 3 x 100 g tins, and of 4 shipments sent by post, I had to pay 800 baht once. One I bought 5 x 100g tins, these got stopped and sent back. (Customs cannot understand the difference between branded tobacco in tins (allowed) and loose tobacco (not allowed)). Even if I pay 800 baht still slightly cheaper than inferior tobacco bought in Thailand.

[n00dle]

Always use EMS rather than FedEx or DHL. They are rapists.

[n00dle]

12 hours ago, Hal65 said:

Is the declared value ignored then? My company opted to have the first laptop returned and send out another one. It's also coming via Fedex and the declared value this time is $700 (24,000 thb per Google).

 

I don't mind paying the import tax but what would harm us is if they try to hold it again to do some sort of "private assesment" or some other BS. I need that laptop to come to me without interruption.

Your company need to learn from it's mistakes and send the laptop via post EMS or this will keep happening.

 

I had a friend whose mother used to send her chocolates, cat treats and stupid gifts that cost her thousands in duty every time and arrived melted or broken.

 

The old woman just wouldn't stop until she started refusing any package that wasn't sent by EMS.

 

Once she got the hint, everything arrived without issue.

[Golden Triangle]

22 hours ago, Golden Triangle said:

I'm expecting a watch to be sent by the UK manufacturers in the next few days, I have paid in full and the company [ Bremont ] has already paid the duties & taxes 5%: £84.79 plus 7% vat £124.64.

 

They are used to shipping to Thailand as they have outlets here, it was a special price for serving or previous members of a specialised military trade.

 

Hopefully Thai customs & FedeX won't have the gall to increase those already paid duties & taxes.

 

The watch I'm waiting for arrived in Chonburi at stupid o clock this morning, at 16.20 hours I received a call from FedEx saying they were going to email me a form which I need to complete & return, anyone have any idea of what this form may be.

[Headgame]

There is so much stupid <deleted> on this thread. Shippers like DHL present the sender's shipping docs to customs and based on the value and whether the shipper's paperwork reflects shipping costs and insurance, the duty and VAT is calculated. DHL will prepay those charges and invoice you for payment before delivery.

Do some freaking homework - it's FREE.
Check the proper item description by searching the HS Code - https://www.foreign-trade.com/reference/hscode.htm.

 

Then go to the free Import Duty Calculator - https://www.simplyduty.com/import-calculator/ and insert the info and it will tell you the duty and VAT. If the info is correct, the duty and VAT will be spot on 99% of the time.

DHL charges a processing fee - aggravating - but what can you do. Based on the value, that fee is usually between 300 - 1,000 THB. 

I avoid FedEx, slow and sloppy and never use UPS. I have to say that freaking DHL is the fastest shipper on the planet. Those guys rock. Fees suck.

If the sender has purposefully undervalued the item, well maybe it slides through Customs or maybe it doesn't. Not really the topic of this thread.

[Liverpool Lou]

6 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

To reiterate the item concerned is NOYB, however you wriggle to claim that FedEx Thailand and to a slightly lesser extent DHL Thailand charge exorbitant fees on some/many private shipments.
 

With large companies shipping via DHL there is no problem. It may also be the case the FedEx piracy is also controlled in the same situation.

To reiterate, and to be more specific, I don't believe that a courier company charged you B7,000+ admin fee plus duty, plus VAT on a normal overseas delivery, as you claim.   And bear in mind when you say that it's "NOYB", you're the one who brought the subject up!

 

"... you wriggle to claim that FedEx Thailand and to a slightly lesser extent DHL Thailand charge exorbitant fees on some/many private shipments".

No, i certainly did not claim that!     I'm saying exactly the opposite, they do not charge exorbitant fees, they charge official import duty rates and VAT and a small admin charge and so far no one has shown me to be wrong.    

[Liverpool Lou]

On 9/29/2021 at 5:05 PM, hanuman2543 said:

On 9/29/2021 at 2:09 PM, Liverpool Lou said:

No, I do not "stand corrected".  The subject of my comments was personal items purchased online, or sent from overseas, such as a laptop, via a courier company, being incorrectly assessed for import duty.   Your links do not relate to my comments.

Your typical lousy excuse when somebody proofs you wrong. You are making things up nothing more and you can't admit when you are wrong.  The OP got the laptop sent to him by his employer. How is that importing personal items? Last time when I wrote about importing my dog sent from overseas you said the same. Are you covered in teflon?

"Your typical lousy excuse when somebody proofs you wrong"

No one has proved me wrong about any of the excessive duty claims, no one.   All it would take would be one waybill/delivery receipt to do it but no one will.   I can guess why.  But, as I have said, I'm ready to consume vast quantities of humble pie if just one person can show some evidence of the claims that I'm disputing.

 

"You are making things up"

What have I made up?  Specifically?   Please point it out and quote it.  

I'm not the one making any of the claims about corrupt courier companies, it's everyone else here that's doing that and, so far, they're all anecdotal with no one prepared to put their money where their mouth is! 

 

"The OP got the laptop sent to him by his employer. How is that importing personal items?"

Are you seriously asking how importing a computer into Thailand can be seen as importing a computer?  Really?    The reason for the import is irrelevant, it's still an import even if his employer sends it to him.

 

"Last time when I wrote about importing my dog..."

My comments on this thread are solely about alleged corrupt courier companies overcharging import duty on items ordered overseas and sent here via DHL, FedEx, etc.  I am not commenting about your experience with Customs when bringing your dog to Thailand!

Edited September 30, 2021 by Liverpool Lou

[Liverpool Lou]

On 9/29/2021 at 6:05 PM, Golden Triangle said:

I'm expecting a watch to be sent by the UK manufacturers in the next few days, I have paid in full and the company [ Bremont ] has already paid the duties & taxes 5%: £84.79 plus 7% vat £124.64.

 

They are used to shipping to Thailand as they have outlets here, it was a special price for serving or previous members of a specialised military trade.

 

Hopefully Thai customs & FedeX won't have the gall to increase those already paid duties & taxes.

Please let us know and don't forget a pic of the duty details if it does go wrong or no one will believe you!

[Liverpool Lou]

17 hours ago, Hal65 said:

I don't mind paying the import tax

Laptop computers are zero-rated for import duty.  VAT is payable.

[Liverpool Lou]

7 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Stuff ONLY gets stopped by customs if its sent by DHL or FedEx....  its a big red flag to them. 

Items sent in through Thailand Post are also liable to be intercepted and duty/VAT charged, if applicable.   They frequently slip through but not always.

[Liverpool Lou]

5 hours ago, n00dle said:

Always use EMS rather than FedEx or DHL. They are rapists.

How does someone here, ordering from a vendor overseas get the option to use Thailand Post's EMS service, a facility used to send postal items within or out of Thailand?    

Edited September 30, 2021 by Liverpool Lou

[sometimewoodworker]

1 hour ago, Liverpool Lou said:

How does someone here, ordering from a vendor overseas get the option to use Thailand Post's EMS service, a facility used to send postal items within or out of Thailand?    

By getting the sender to send the item using the home country EMS, obviously!!

 

EMS isn’t a parochial service, it’s both National and international.