Customs + VAT on laptop computer purchased on Amazon (USA)

[WaveHunter]

I see all sorts of conflicting information on the forum about Customs Duty on Laptops coming into Thailand from the USA.  Can somebody just give me a straight answer?

 

My understanding is that laptops are waived from Customs duty (i.e.: ZERO CUSTOMS DUTY), and you only pay the 7% VAT.  VERY SIMPLY, IS THIS CORRECT?

 

Question 2:  Is VAT based only on the purchase price, or does VAT also include shipping and insurance?

[Crossy]

Every country in the known universe charges duty and VAT on the CIF (Cost, Insurance, Freight) value.

 

Computers are indeed zero-rated for duty so only the VAT plus any "handling fee" charged by the freight/clearance company.

 

I think Amazon have a system whereby you can pre-pay for the customs stuff and then get a refund of any overpayment.

 

Any particular reason you don't want to buy here and avoid any potential warranty issues??

 

[WaveHunter]

10 minutes ago, Crossy said:

Every country in the known universe charges duty and VAT on the CIF (Cost, Insurance, Freight) value.

 

Computers are indeed zero-rated for duty so only the VAT plus any "handling fee" charged by the freight/clearance company.

 

I think Amazon have a system whereby you can pre-pay for the customs stuff and then get a refund of any overpayment.

 

Any particular reason you don't want to buy here and avoid any potential warranty issues??

 

Thanks for reply Crossy.  I was hoping you would chime in since I've seen other posts of yours that show you know your stuff and get right to the point.

 

The main reason I want to buy from the USA is that Apple is currently selling their 2021 Macbook Pro M1's at a hugely discounted price...but only on their Apple Store on Amazon as far as I can tell.  It's a $2,000 computer reduced to $1599.  I need that specific laptop for intensive video editing, and no other laptop on the market even comes close to it in performance.

[ezzra]

It would be a lot cheaper for you if you can buy the item and ship it to a friend or a family member, re-pack and ship it to you as used second hand items, this way you'll minimise your chances to pay hefty import

duties...

[Liverpool Lou]

17 hours ago, ezzra said:

It would be a lot cheaper for you if you can buy the item and ship it to a friend or a family member, re-pack and ship it to you as used second hand items, this way you'll minimise your chances to pay hefty import

duties..

Laptops are zero-rated so there is no import duty liability, hefty or otherwise. 

If duty is charged on any dutiable item, it is charged on its value, not whether it is used or new.  A used $1500 item attracts exactly the same import duty as a new $1500 item.

[Liverpool Lou]

Crossy is right, zero import duty and CIF valuation.

[thaisabai]

I have experienced Amazon to be expensive, both in shipping cost and customs fee to Thailand. Ebay has much better rates, is quick and hassle free.

Just bought a new laptop at Ebay for 40$ shipping and less than 40$ customs fees.

arrived within a week in Thailand

 

thaisabai

[WaveHunter]

21 hours ago, ezzra said:

It would be a lot cheaper for you if you can buy the item and ship it to a friend or a family member, re-pack and ship it to you as used second hand items, this way you'll minimise your chances to pay hefty import

duties...

The problem with that is this particular laptop is so heavily discounted in price right now, that it is already at a level that used ones are selling for. What's more, I would then not have an invoice to prove the price that I paid, and Customs would be more likely to look it up in their valuation database, and might even possibly assess a valuation of the list price ($2,000 USD).

 

I had something similar happen once before with Thai Customs.  I bought some used items from a Japanese site that's similar to eBay.  The items were shipped to me with invoices included but Thai Customs arbitrarily re-assessed them as new.   Not only that but they used the wrong product category and valued them at 10 times their retail value! 

 

It took over a month of sending appeal letters, and snapshots of each auction listing before Thai Customs agreed to the original invoices which totalled under 1500 THB (so they should have actually bypassed Customs entirely). 

 

And then the real kicker...Even though the total value made the shipment duty free, they charged me a fee for re-assessing them which made the valuation just a few baht over 1500 THB, forcing me to go to the post office to pay the fee, instead of just delivering the package to my doorstep!  No big deal, you might think, except that the nearest post office that handles packages with Duty payable is one hour from where I live, so I had to spend half a day to pick up the package when it should have just been delivered to my doorstep!

 

Thai Customs, I'm sorry to say, is inept and perhaps even corrupt!  I really try and avoid anything that give them the opportunity to screw up, but saving over $500 on a new computer makes it necessary this time.!

[WaveHunter]

1 hour ago, thaisabai said:

I have experienced Amazon to be expensive, both in shipping cost and customs fee to Thailand. Ebay has much better rates, is quick and hassle free.

Just bought a new laptop at Ebay for 40$ shipping and less than 40$ customs fees.

arrived within a week in Thailand

 

thaisabai

I agree!  Amazon give you no good deals on international shipping.  That's why I use a package consolidation company in the US.  Anything I buy from the States is shipped to the Consolidator's warehouse in California and stored until I request they ship it to me.  Due to the high volume of shipping they do, they have unbelievably low shipping costs from a number of shipping companies that you can select, and pass the savings onto their customers.

 

For example, for this this computer, Amazon would charge me $324.50 Shipping & Import Fees.

My Consolidator charges $195.39 for the exact same thing!  So, Amazon is charging about 40% MORE than my consolidator!

 

When I thought of using a consolidator I seriously researched the companies that do this.  Some are not so good or trustworthy but I found one that was consistently ranked as one of the best! I have used them about 10 times and they handled the shipments flawlessly.

 

One of the really nice things I like about them is they will warehouse your purchases from different stores you purchase from for free up to up to a month and even longer for a very nominal fee, and then when you are ready to ship, they will consolidate all your different purchases, removing the shipping packaging of individual shipments, and putting everything into one very secure shipping box so that the shipping cost per item is dramatically less, and they prepare the Customs documents for you in a professional way.  Their fees are very reasonable too.

 

If anyone else is interested in looking into this, the company I use is called Planet Express and I highly recommend them!  

 

 

 

[digger70]

23 hours ago, WaveHunter said:

Thanks for reply Crossy.  I was hoping you would chime in since I've seen other posts of yours that show you know your stuff and get right to the point.

 

The main reason I want to buy from the USA is that Apple is currently selling their 2021 Macbook Pro M1's at a hugely discounted price...but only on their Apple Store on Amazon as far as I can tell.  It's a $2,000 computer reduced to $1599.  I need that specific laptop for intensive video editing, and no other laptop on the market even comes close to it in performance.

Try the new 2022 Apple MacBook Air  M2 Chip 8C CPU/8C GPU/8GB/256GB

I just got one 4 weeks ago Will do Better than the M1 Chip in the MacBook Pro.

[WaveHunter]

26 minutes ago, digger70 said:

Try the new 2022 Apple MacBook Air  M2 Chip 8C CPU/8C GPU/8GB/256GB

I just got one 4 weeks ago Will do Better than the M1 Chip in the MacBook Pro.

Actually that was my initial choice but after reading numerus reviews of the M2 version of the Air, it sounded like the M1 version was actually better in a lot of ways. 

 

What's more, for my needs I require 16gB.  The MacBook Pro comes standard with 16gB RAM and 512gB SSD (which I also need). 

 

Now that 2021 M1 MacBook Pro is on sale, the price for it is the same price of the 2022 M2 Air configured similarly (16gb Ram / 512gB SSD), and the MacBook Pro has MASSIVE performance over the Airs, not to mention more ports, better cooling (so no throttling issues that the Airs seem to have under a heavy load), and a lot more besides...I mean it is designed for professional power users.

 

To be honest, I have been pouring over reviews that compare the M2 Airs with the M1 Macbook Pros, and for performance applications that I use like Adobe Premiere, the latest AI neural filters in Photoshop, and DaVinci Resolve Studio, the 2021 M1 Macbook Pro blows the M2 Air right out of the water in terms of performance!

 

Honestly I think the M2 chip is being overly touted compared to the M1.  If you look at reviews that favor the M2, you notice that the benchmark scores they refer to are very carefully cherry-picked to make it sound more impressive than it really is in real world use.

 

In reality, the differences between the M1 and M2 chip is marginal for most real world applications.

 

Don't get me wrong.  The Macbook Airs are amazing for more casual use where extreme performance is not a critical factor.  The design and lightweight are particularly impressive over the Macbook Pro, but if you really need a work-horse, nothing right now can beat the M1 version of the MacBook Pro, not even the M2 version except in very marginal ways that can't justify the price difference now that the M1 is so heavily discounted that it is basically the same price of an Air that is similarly configured! 

 

The M3 version is the one that will probably be the game-changer.

[clokwise]

8 minutes ago, WaveHunter said:

For example, for this this computer, Amazon would charge me $324.50 Shipping & Import Fees.

My Consolidator charges $195.39 for the exact same thing!  So, Amazon is charging about 40% MORE than my consolidator!

 

If anyone else is interested in looking into this, the company I use is called Planet Express and I highly recommend them! 

I use a very similar company called myus,com. They also offer cheaper shipping than Amazon, but possibly their biggest advantage is there is no sales tax to ship to their warehouse, which does add up, particularly with thousand+ dollar items.

 

On the downside, though you could argue it's a positive thing, they insist on opening, inspecting, and photographing every parcel, ostensibly to ensure the goods are actually the goods on the invoice and are in good condition. And they are very picky about confirming the true values on the invoice, although I'm sure it's just to make sure they don't get in trouble with customs later.

 

 

 

[digger70]

3 minutes ago, WaveHunter said:

Actually that was my initial choice but after reading numerus reviews of the M2 version of the Air, it sounded like the M1 version was actually better in a lot of ways.  What's more, for my needs I require 16gB.  The MacBook Pro comes standard with 16gB RAM and 512gB SSD (which I also need).  Now that it is on sale, the price for the MacBook Pro is the same price of the Air configured the same way, and the MacBook Pro has MASSIVE performance compared to the Air, not to mention more ports, better cooling (so no throttling issues that the Airs seem to have under a heavy load.

 

Honestly I think the M2 chip is being overly touted compared to the M1.  If youl look at reviews that favor the M2, you notice that the benchmark scores they refer to are very carefully cherry-picked to make it sound more impressive than it really is.

 

For casual use and tghe advantage of a super lightweight, portable laptop, the Airs seem fantastic, and I really love that radical new design of the M2, compared with the MacBook Pro, but if you really need a work-horse, nothing right now can beat the M1 version of the MacBook Pro, even the M2 version!  The M3 version is the one that will probably be the game-changer.

OK ,If you prefer the M1 MacBookPro that's fine . the M2 MB Air is more then enough for me .  ????

[WaveHunter]

22 minutes ago, clokwise said:

I use a very similar company called myus,com. They also offer cheaper shipping than Amazon, but possibly their biggest advantage is there is no sales tax to ship to their warehouse, which does add up, particularly with thousand+ dollar items.

 

On the downside, though you could argue it's a positive thing, they insist on opening, inspecting, and photographing every parcel, ostensibly to ensure the goods are actually the goods on the invoice and are in good condition. And they are very picky about confirming the true values on the invoice, although I'm sure it's just to make sure they don't get in trouble with customs later.

 

 

 

No sales tax?  I did not know that.  Are you sure?  I mean if Amazon has a presence in their state, are you sure it does not get added?  I'll have to look into that since that would be a nice bonus if true.

 

My Consolidator also documents everything with photos which is a huge upside to me since it prevents the possibility of a seller scamming you with something different from what you thought you were buying, or just a simple mistake of shipping the wrong item.

 

I mean, it would be a real shock to pay for the item, shipping and customs only to find out once it got to you here in Thailand that they shipped the wrong item, and then be faced with returning it to the merchant for replacement or refund from Thailand!  Just another reason to favor a consolidator over Amazon for shipping.

 

My consolidator makes no issue of me changing values on the Customs form if I want.  Based on experience though, that's a bad idea since if Customs questions your valuation and you have no invoices included to back it up, they will ream you on their own arbitrary assessment, so I always play it safe and include the invoiced amount.

 

 

 

[WaveHunter]

41 minutes ago, digger70 said:

OK ,If you prefer the M1 MacBookPro that's fine . the M2 MB Air is more then enough for me .  ????

If it were not for the extreme-performance softwares that I have to work with, I would be perfectly happy with an basic M1 Air with 8gB ram and a 256 SSD. 

 

It is an amazing machine, beautifully designed and so light, and the AIr's are probably better than any other laptop made right now for general use....but it is not really designed for all-day power applications like video editing and color grading.

 

The tough part of buying a computer from Apple these days is that you must be real careful to get one that meets your needs since critical components like RAM, VRAM, processors, and storage can not be changed once you buy them.

 

Programs like Adobe Premiere and DaVinci Resolve really require extreme specs from a computer that the Airs can not provide if you are working with them all day long.

 

It pays to do your homework BEFORE you buy ????. Like I said, I'm not making disparaging remarks about the Macbook Airs.  I would actually love to own both!

[wimpy]

1 hour ago, WaveHunter said:

I agree!  Amazon give you no good deals on international shipping.  That's why I use a package consolidation company in the US.  Anything I buy from the States is shipped to the Consolidator's warehouse in California and stored until I request they ship it to me.  Due to the high volume of shipping they do, they have unbelievably low shipping costs from a number of shipping companies that you can select, and pass the savings onto their customers.

 

For example, for this this computer, Amazon would charge me $324.50 Shipping & Import Fees.

My Consolidator charges $195.39 for the exact same thing!  So, Amazon is charging about 40% MORE than my consolidator!

 

When I thought of using a consolidator I seriously researched the companies that do this.  Some are not so good or trustworthy but I found one that was consistently ranked as one of the best! I have used them about 10 times and they handled the shipments flawlessly.

 

One of the really nice things I like about them is they will warehouse your purchases from different stores you purchase from for free up to up to a month and even longer for a very nominal fee, and then when you are ready to ship, they will consolidate all your different purchases, removing the shipping packaging of individual shipments, and putting everything into one very secure shipping box so that the shipping cost per item is dramatically less, and they prepare the Customs documents for you in a professional way.  Their fees are very reasonable too.

 

If anyone else is interested in looking into this, the company I use is called Planet Express and I highly recommend them!  

 

 

 

Shipping to Calif, you are hit with an outrageous sales tax; no?

[WaveHunter]

19 hours ago, wimpy said:

Shipping to Calif, you are hit with an outrageous sales tax; no?

Good point!  Actually CA's sales tax is not that much higher than most states, but what it got me to realize is that going through the Consolidator will result in me being DOUBLE-TAXED on this purchase; once by CA sales tax at 7%, and then again by Thailand's VAT, also at 7%..  Even worse, it's not just 14% tax, but even more since Thailand's VAT will be based on the CA tax being included inthe valuation!

 

Just to make it even worse.  I don't even have the option of having it shipped directly from Amazon since they will not deliver this item directly to Thailand.

 

DAMN!!!!!  Perhaps there is some tax-savvy forum member has a suggestion ???

 

[wimpy]

28 minutes ago, WaveHunter said:

Good point!  Actually CA's sales tax is not that much higher than most states, but what it got me to realize is that going through the Consolidator will result in me being DOUBLE-TAXED on this purchase; once by CA sales tax at 7%, and then again by Thailand's VAT, also at 7%..  Even worse, it's not just 14% tax, but even more since Thailand's VAT will be based on the CA tax being included inthe valuation!

 

Just to make it even worse.  I don't even have the option of having it shipped directly from Amazon since they will not deliver this item directly to Thailand.

 

DAMN!!!!!  Perhaps there is some tax-savvy forum member has a suggestion ???

 

I believe some consolidators have addresses in 0 sales tax states.

 

Depends where you are in California. Some Bay Area cities have sales tax as high as 10.75%.

[WaveHunter]

1 hour ago, wimpy said:

I believe some consolidators have addresses in 0 sales tax states.

 

Depends where you are in California. Some Bay Area cities have sales tax as high as 10.75%.

I'll check with consolidator but i thought sales tax rates are state-wide and did not vary by region within a state.

[wimpy]

1 hour ago, WaveHunter said:

I'll check with consolidator but i thought sales tax rates are state-wide and did not vary by region within a state.

 

cdtfa95.pdf

[Onerak]

On 11/8/2022 at 4:07 AM, Crossy said:

I think Amazon have a system whereby you can pre-pay for the customs stuff and then get a refund of any overpayment.

Yes, true. I once bought a IPHone for my GF and it was shipped from US Amazon with all customs etc. included. And they refunded the excess after the delivery. Not all prpoducts Amazon will say it could ship to Thailand. The product they say they could ship to a Thai address, it will show you the custom charges. 

[fdsa]

On 11/8/2022 at 4:43 PM, WaveHunter said:

My understanding is that laptops are waived from Customs duty (i.e.: ZERO CUSTOMS DUTY), and you only pay the 7% VAT.  VERY SIMPLY, IS THIS CORRECT?

no, the amount to pay will depend on the mood of the customs officer inspecting your package. And you'll be left with a choice - either pay what they want or forget about your laptop.

 

On 11/8/2022 at 4:43 PM, WaveHunter said:

Question 2:  Is VAT based only on the purchase price, or does VAT also include shipping and insurance?

the import tax includes shipping and insurance.

 

more info here: https://aseannow.com/topic/1224885-ordering-a-lenovo-thinkpad-4-weeks/page/4/

 

 

  

On 11/8/2022 at 4:43 PM, WaveHunter said:

Can somebody just give me a straight answer?

this is Thailand - there is no straight answer to any question.

 

[WaveHunter]

43 minutes ago, fdsa said:

no, the amount to pay will depend on the mood of the customs officer inspecting your package. And you'll be left with a choice - either pay what they want or forget about your laptop.

 

the import tax includes shipping and insurance.

 

more info here: https://aseannow.com/topic/1224885-ordering-a-lenovo-thinkpad-4-weeks/page/4/

 

 

  

this is Thailand - there is no straight answer to any question.

 

Well, even though your reply was quite sardonic regarding Customs Officer's moods and there being no straight answers here in the Magic KIngdom, from my own experiences I have to agree with you ????

 

I started looking on Facebook Marketplace (Thailand) and surprisingly I have found a few computer stores who are also selling the 2021 MacBook Pro that I want at those same discounted prices as I saw on Amazon.  In fact one store was even selling one with a larger SSD for the same price!

 

I'm real uncomfortable dealing with someone who's language I don't understand but I did buy my latest iPhone that way and it had a happy ending, plus the Macbook Pro's are brand new in sealed box with a full one year Apple Warranty...so, that may be the course I take.

 

Just want to thank everyone for a lot of helpful replies.  I really appreciate it ????

 

 

[WaveHunter]

57 minutes ago, Onerak said:

Yes, true. I once bought a IPHone for my GF and it was shipped from US Amazon with all customs etc. included. And they refunded the excess after the delivery. Not all prpoducts Amazon will say it could ship to Thailand. The product they say they could ship to a Thai address, it will show you the custom charges. 

Yes that's true, but I've also read many reports (some on this forum) of carriers finding all sorts of ways to make sure you don't get any of the refund back, and some of those ways sound a little suspicious at best.

 

Anyway, as I mentioned in my post right before this one, I think I'm going with a local source for the MacBook pro I want since I'm sure Customs will find a way to ruin my day if I try to get it from the US..

[JimmyJ]

On 11/9/2022 at 6:13 PM, WaveHunter said:

No sales tax?  I did not know that.  Are you sure?  I mean if Amazon has a presence in their state, are you sure it does not get added?  I'll have to look into that since that would be a nice bonus if true.

 

My Consolidator also documents everything with photos which is a huge upside to me since it prevents the possibility of a seller scamming you with something different from what you thought you were buying, or just a simple mistake of shipping the wrong item.

 

I mean, it would be a real shock to pay for the item, shipping and customs only to find out once it got to you here in Thailand that they shipped the wrong item, and then be faced with returning it to the merchant for replacement or refund from Thailand!  Just another reason to favor a consolidator over Amazon for shipping.

 

My consolidator makes no issue of me changing values on the Customs form if I want.  Based on experience though, that's a bad idea since if Customs questions your valuation and you have no invoices included to back it up, they will ream you on their own arbitrary assessment, so I always play it safe and include the invoiced amount.

 

 

 

PE charges no State Tax if you ship to their OR warehouse.

But some negatives also if one chooses that.

 

[Digitalbanana]

On 11/9/2022 at 5:28 PM, WaveHunter said:

If anyone else is interested in looking into this, the company I use is called Planet Express and I highly recommend them!  

Never used PE before, but used Shipito several times to buy laptops off of Amazon to a duty free address in the US then pay Shipito Fedex fees inc import to Thailand. Cheaper than using Amazon direct to Thailand. Arrived in about 4-5 days.