Bringing personal items into Thailand

[Guemlum]

The Thai wife has just told me that there is a combined limit of 20,000 baht when bringing personal items into Thailand. I've never heard of this before and have many times over the years brought personal items exceeding that value into Thailand (for personal use) and returned to the UK with said items. ie laptop worth about 35,000 baht, digital camera 45,000 baht, i-phone worth about 25,000 baht, portable bluetooth speaker 9000 baht.

 

Can anyone confirm the above as I will be wanting to take the same items and return to the UK with them again.

 

Guemlum 

[richard_smith237]

Technically your wife is right....   realistically this has never been an issue except for the odd Thai Woman here or there who gets stopped with a couple of 200,000 baht handbags in their boxes (obviously going to sell them on). 

 

Or, its the tourist exceeding their duty free allowance of cigarettes etc... 

 

 

Over the years I’ve travelled in and out with numerous items of expense which exceed the ’technical limits’ 

MacBook, iPad, Expensive Watches etc

 

Even obvious items such as Bikes, Skis etc... 

 

Customs seem completely disinterested in our personal items...   I wouldn’t give it a second thought. 

 

 

Before Covid I was entering Thailand about 8 times per year for the past 20 years or so. 

I’ve been asked to place one bag on the x-ray machine once... I don’t even think they bothered looking at the images !!!... 

 

 

 

 

 

[themongoose]

Alot of countries have such rules, they are generally disregarded for items which are obviously for your own personal use, and not intended to sell.

 

So, any items in original shop packaging, or in excessive amounts (i.e. more than one Rolex per arm, which I have seen) are obviously intended for resale rather than use, and would be taxable, in theory.

 

Many a trip I have been asked by the MIL to wear a watch just for the walkthrough...

[Guemlum]

This is exactly what I thought and thanks for the replies. I will proceed as normal.

 

Guemlum

[sometimewoodworker]

19 hours ago, Guemlum said:

Can anyone confirm the above as I will be wanting to take the same items and return to the UK with them again.

As above there is an extremely low chance of being stopped for inspection and even if stopped a virtually zero chance of your being asked to pay anything.

 

I have seen people bringing suitcases of designer hand bags being caught as it was clearly for resale.
 

I have had my own bags inspected once or twice in hundreds of trips, on one of those occasions I had close to 100,000 Baht in new tools I was bringing in, customs were only interested in what I was going to use them for and only because they were bored and the tools were an uncommon item they didn’t ask the value but it was clear they were not cheap.

 

The tools were in addition to the computer I was carrying that was valued at about another ฿80,000

Edited December 25, 2021 by sometimewoodworker

[m Stender]

Long time ago when we visited my family in Denmark, the customs asked my wife about the gold around her neck and the rings and armbrace, but after a longer discusion they accepted all itme as personal, and they advised us to have it in our trunk next time

[Mr Dome]

If you are a (Caucasian) foreigner certain types of rules aren't enforced on you unless they feel you did something wrong (also, how much time would it take to check everyone. Another example is having to have (the equivalent of) THB 20K and a confirmed flight out of Thailand.

 

So, the rule is there but most will never have to worry about it.

[Regyai]

45 minutes ago, m Stender said:

....... and they advised us to have it in our trunk next time

Really... the most idiotic, insecure thing you could do!

[herfiehandbag]

On 12/24/2021 at 10:40 PM, richard_smith237 said:

Over the years I’ve travelled in and out with numerous items of expense which exceed the ’technical limits’ 

MacBook, iPad, Expensive Watches etc

 

Even obvious items such as Bikes, Skis etc... 

 

Customs seem completely disinterested in our personal items...   I wouldn’t give it a second thought. 

 

 

Before Covid I was entering Thailand about 8 times

They probably looked at you as you went through the green channel in blazing sunshine, 37 degrees and Bangkok humidity and thought:" It's that bloke with the skis again -  mad as a hatter, we will leave him alone!"

 

Edited December 26, 2021 by herfiehandbag

[Crossy]

The customs chaps at the airport are really only interested in the "easy" things, booze and tobacco. Clear limits and simple enforcement.

 

Bring a computer or tools and it invariably gets flied under "too hard".

 

[roger101]

Many years ago I brought a Hedge Trimmer over for a friend.not sure what to do I went through the Red Channel. The customs guy looked and said 1,000 Baht. Then he said do you want a receipt and when I said No he said OK then 500 Baht.

[khunPer]

On 12/24/2021 at 4:13 PM, Guemlum said:

The Thai wife has just told me that there is a combined limit of 20,000 baht when bringing personal items into Thailand.

Your wife is absolutely correct...????

 

Customs Procedure for arriving passengers at the Nothing to Declare or Green Channel

Passengers with nothing to declare means they do not have any items liable for duty and taxes and prohibited or restricted goods with them when arriving in Thailand. For this case, they should use the Nothing to Declare lane, and the following items are exempted from duty: 

• Personal belongings in reasonable quantity, which are worth no more than 20,000 baht in total and are not prohibited or restricted goods or food
• No more than 200 cigarettes or 250g of tobacco or 250g of all types combined
• No more than 1 litre of alcoholic beverage
• For the excess quantities of cigarettes, tobacco or alcoholic beverages, they must be dropped in the box provided by Customs, otherwise prosecution will be carried out.

Link HERE...????

[teutonian]

At the moment customs seems to stop nobody because they don’t want close interaction with humans.  The same goes for other countries.   
 

i think anything of real interest is intercepted behind the scenes on X-ray, explosive and drug scans.