Thailand Customs to Apply VAT on All Postal Imports

[OldmanJ]

Is it only me or does it appear that the Thai government are trying to slowly drive us expats out of the country and look for an alternative country to spend our money and final days.

[itsari]

1 hour ago, jimgilly said:

So does that mean you will have to go to the post office for every package coming in from another country to pay this BS tax?   On top of this,  they are working overtime trying to find how they can extract more money from expats living here.  There are better places in this world to be and I for one will be moving on.  Get out while you can because things are just going to get worse in the future.

30 million packages must mean Thai citizens are ordering from china and a sprinkle of foreigners.

[dogfish180]

1 hour ago, NotEinstein said:

This is obviously aimed at the huge amount of Lazada and Shopee parcels direct from China via the delivery services, not via the post office. I guess it will be up to the delivery guy to collect the tax payment upon delivery, or else how is it supposed to work?

As usual the government have come up with an idea that is NOT thought through. Why let the details get in the way of a dumb idea 😆

[findlay13]

13 minutes ago, garzhe said:

"However, assessing the tax on each individually boxed item is a daunting task for customs officers, opening the need to devise effective methods of tax collection on low-cost goods"

 

Like many other Ideas, are they competent to implement it? 

 

 

That's a rhetorical question obviously

[AAArdvark]

4 minutes ago, OldmanJ said:

Is it only me or does it appear that the Thai government are trying to slowly drive us expats out of the country and look for an alternative country to spend our money and final days.

What does this have to do with expats

[Rampant Rabbit]

They must be really desperate for money to fund their vote buying   incredible schemes

[8OA8]

9 minutes ago, Marco51 said:

If they flatrate parcels independant of what is inside, VAT will in future also have to be paid for books? Books are duty- and VAT free internationally.

Maybe they will just add a way of receiving the VAT refund on books, so if you receive a book, before you open the parcel you head to the Postal Customs Department fill out a claim form declaration of contents (false declaration fine equal to 4× total value of goods inside) and open the package in front of the officer and once books are verified, you are then able to reclaim the VAT youve paid in advance. Inconvenient but you're the one looking for a refund, can't be bothered with the hassle for such a small amount then just swallow the VAT element. Much like reverse of the Customs Department not currently collecting the VAT

[wensiensheng]

Pretty sure that the threshold for VAT was increased from 1k baht to 1.5k baht, because below that amount the cost of collection was more than the revenue gained. Now the exemption limit is going from 1.5k baht to nothing.

 

sounds like it’s going to be a lot of work for not a lot of reward. I guess it might create some jobs in the Revenue dept as they hire workers to process all the tax collections

[hotchilli]

2 hours ago, John Drake said:

Prayuth was better.

Yeah, he and the fat one emptied the pot that Srettha & Co are trying to refill... 

Never mind, Thaksin will help all the poor people again soon, with scarps from the masters table.

[OneMoreFarang]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

At present, imports sent via post aren't subject to VAT or import duties if each item's cost, insurance, and freight (CIF) value is less than 1,500 baht. However, plans from the Finance Ministry intend to enforce VAT collection on all imported goods, regardless of their value

Did anybody think about that the current rule might exist because of real life issues?

Who will inspect all those packages and set a value? Who will collect the money? Where will all those parcels be stored until people pay?

I am sure most post offices won't have the space to store all parcels for one week. And they certainly don't have the manpower to open them all, set prices, collect money, etc.

[Liverpool Lou]

2 hours ago, jimgilly said:

they are working overtime trying to find how they can extract more money from expats living here.

Nonsense.  Most of the people affected by this will be Thais, obviously, it is not being applied for expats!

[Guderian]

So 30 million parcels per year, even if you assume they're all worth the maximum of 1,500 Baht, which they won't be, would raise 3.15 billion Baht in VAT at most. They're going to have to get a lot more creative to find the 400 billion Baht needed to pay for Thaksin's digital wallet scheme. :rolleyes:

[Liverpool Lou]

2 hours ago, jimgilly said:

So does that mean you will have to go to the post office for every package coming in from another country to pay this BS tax?

For every parcel that is intercepted, yes, theoretically. but not all of the incoming 30 million can be.

[Mark Nothing]

This tax fetish is getting ridiculous.

 

The easiest way to do it would be to add the tax on the checkout window when the buyer makes an online order.

 

Airplane tickets and ebay act as tax collectors already.  

[Liverpool Lou]

2 hours ago, jimgilly said:

There are better places in this world to be and I for one will be moving on.

Are you moving on to a place that doesn't have VAT and import duty?  Any recommendations for those generous countries?

[Hakuna Matata]

European Union introduced the same system 2 years ago for all goods from outside EU sent by post.

 

EU VAT is 20% on the average.

 

Thailand VAT is only 7%

[Hakuna Matata]

3 minutes ago, Mark Nothing said:

Airplane tickets and ebay act as tax collectors already. 

 

As well as Amazon and Etsy. But only for European Union, United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

 

This is sorta IOSS system.

[moe666]

45 minutes ago, grubman said:

Do you think that expats are the only one that are ordering item from overseas, i am sure that the expat community is a very small percentage of orders that are being shipped from oversea. 

 

I'm sure there are many Thais ordering items from online platforms that are being shipped from oversea which will be including in the new tax grab 

 

Maybe the online platform can have the tax added in the final price, Amazon do this and you know the tax amount on check out... 

 

 

My wife always has some box of crap coming  to the house in one of those pickup yes from China, looks ok until it isn't. This is a goos move on Thailands part, now they can go to the shop look directly at what they are buying.

[Expat68]

2 hours ago, jimgilly said:

So does that mean you will have to go to the post office for every package coming in from another country to pay this BS tax?   On top of this,  they are working overtime trying to find how they can extract more money from expats living here.  There are better places in this world to be and I for one will be moving on.  Get out while you can because things are just going to get worse in the future.

Double taxed, double VAT. GREAT

[Liverpool Lou]

2 hours ago, mania said:

2 hours ago, webfact said:

However, plans from the Finance Ministry intend to enforce VAT collection on all imported goods, regardless of their value, but continue to exempt import duties.

A rose by any other name is still a stinkin tax

Your post suggests that the government is trying to disguise Value Added Tax by using another name, what name do you claim that they are now using?    Value Added Tax is an undisguised tax.

[mran66]

Some european countries did similar move some years back. To deal with that, Alibaba created a system that they handle the VAT payments automatically for all the millions of parcels the sellers sell on their platform. No work at all for buyer.

 

If you choose such euro country as your shipment location, price is different than e.g Thailand, and stated that it include VAT. Parcels come home in mail like before, just VAT added.

 

So this is actually (relatively) favourable to Alibaba as they have system in place, whereas some smaller sellers may not. The question how will Thai govt officials enable that system to be connect to their system, as if all done automatically, not much chance to extort bribes from buyers. Alibaba sure need to pay something to customs to compensate the losses of course...but to block off Alibaba from selling to Thailand, wont happen as big brother will come remind who is big brother if they try!

 

So, as long as they allow the IT systems to talk, this is no issue, and fully understandable for Thai govt to do it, though of course I would prefer to buy tax free.

Edited April 29 by mran66

[Expat68]

38 minutes ago, dogfish180 said:

As usual the government have come up with an idea that is NOT thought through. Why let the details get in the way of a dumb idea 😆

They will not release from PO, have to go and pay first

[wensiensheng]

47 minutes ago, Trip Hop said:

Not unless Lazada sets up a system similar to what Amazon & EBay have whereby if you’re ordering from a different country, they charge you any import duty/VAT and then passes this directly onto the treasury. Your parcel is marked that all duty has been paid so it doesn’t get held up at the post office or wherever waiting for you to pay. 

True. Thailand is so good at setting up integrated IT solutions.

[Hakuna Matata]

2 hours ago, jimgilly said:

So does that mean you will have to go to the post office for every package coming in from another country to pay this BS tax

 

You will receive a notice from the Customs in your mailbox. You will pay the tax online, you don't need to visit the customs office under normal circumstances. After you have paid the tax, Thailand Post will deliver the package to your home.

[John Drake]

17 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Yeah, he and the fat one emptied the pot that Srettha & Co are trying to refill... 

Never mind, Thaksin will help all the poor people again soon, with scarps from the masters table.

 

Everything was better: immigration, no taxes on foreign income, no open door for Russians and Chinese, and now this new parcel tax. Hell, even Thai foreign policy was better balanced between China and the West. 

[Hakuna Matata]

3 minutes ago, Expat68 said:

They will not release from PO, have to go and pay first

 

They will keep the packages at the regional customs office warehouse at your location, not at the Post Office.

[wensiensheng]

1 minute ago, Hakuna Matata said:

 

You will receive a notice from the Customs in your mailbox. You will pay the tax online, you don't need to visit the customs office under normal circumstances. After you have paid the tax, Thailand Post will deliver the package to your home.

Doesn’t most the stuff come via private companies? Lazada, Kerry etc. maybe the post office does some but I don’t think that they do most of them

[richard_smith237]

52 minutes ago, Trip Hop said:

Not unless Lazada sets up a system similar to what Amazon & EBay have whereby if you’re ordering from a different country, they charge you any import duty/VAT and then passes this directly onto the treasury. Your parcel is marked that all duty has been paid so it doesn’t get held up at the post office or wherever waiting for you to pay. 

 

Indeed - this would be the logical way to set things up.... 

 

What about regular post - i.e. grandparents sending presents over etc....     Are customs going to be jumping all over those packages too ??? and does this mean packages are going to take much longer to get through rather than the usual 1 week to 10 days ?

 

 

 

 

 

[Liverpool Lou]

1 hour ago, Jeffrey346 said:

Just received an item declared at $185. no VAT was charged

It doesn't start until next month, as the OP states, but your parcel would not be affected by the change anyway; you were just lucky that your item was not selected to be examined, that's all.

[AAArdvark]

For foreign items below the current minimum, they could simply impose a sales tax rather than a vat. The seller would be responsible for the cost and would be included in the sales price.