iHerb - New VAT/Duties Tax At Checkout

[connda]

This is new at iHerb.  They are collecting VAT/Duties upfront.  Well, I placed an order and we'll test that theory and see if I'm levied any additional VAT when the package arrives.  If I do that will be the end of 10 years of ordering from iHerb.  If it works?  Well cool.  I played around with different order sizes and checkout amounts and the VAT/Duties/Handling "tax" is between 12% to 15% of the value of the order.  The only way this is now affordable is to purchase over $40 in order to get free shipping.  I have used iHerb because it is affordable.  It it becomes no more affordable then buying from Lazada or online in Thailand - well, that will just suck but I'll have to switch to buying locally.  Freaking governments and their freaking taxes aimed directly at the lower and middle class.

From iHerb regarding the new tax:

 

Like I said - "We'll see."

Edited July 28 by connda

[Sheryl]

Thanks for this and please update when package arrives. 

[connda]

53 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

Thanks for this and please update when package arrives. 

Will do!  I'm definitely curious how this is going to shake out.  I'll keep this up-to-date.  Delivery time is usually two weeks so, back in a couple...

[mark5335]

I had been anticipating this given the Thai gov't announcements a few months ago regarding doing away with the 1,500 baht vat free threshold on imports.

I placed an order with iHerb on 17 Jul (after notification of the change in arrangments by iHerb) and received delivery on 25 July by Flash Express (with no additional taxes to collect). 

The invoice included an all-in amount for duties/vat of 15% that I had prepaid. I usually purchase when iHerb has a promo/discount which I guess offsets the the duties/taxes to some extent. 

In the past I have usually ticked the box for delivery by Flash Express (with free delivery) instead of US/Thai Post, and this is now the only option available, which means the max. number of items per order is limited to 3.

 

 

Edited July 29 by mark5335

[connda]

1 hour ago, mark5335 said:

The invoice included an all-in amount for duties/vat of 15% that I had prepaid. I usually purchase when iHerb has a promo/discount which I guess offsets the the duties/taxes to some extent. 

That's good to know.  Thanks for the update. 
However, this entire thing sucks rocks as it's again inflationary but this time compliment of the government.  The VAT is 7% but the surcharges collected by iHerb range between 12% to 15%.  You used to be able to avoid duties by keeping your order under $46, so I expected to keep my order between $40 and $46 and just have to pay the 7% VAT.  This new tax is making iHerb purchases unaffordable.  The inflation driving up the cost of supplements has been bad enough.

The only positive I see now is that I don't have to worry about the $46 cap on my purchases.  I can now see how much they are going to take right at checkout, and it looks like we are paying duties now regardless of the total price of the invoice.  Tell ya'll what - this is going to impact my future purchases which will now only be items which are difficult to find in Thailand, and they will lose business from buyers in Thailand as a result imho.   And I'll really be looking at the prices of items I need which I can get locally as compared to what the unit prices will be from items shipped from iHerb after "Taxes, Duties, and Handling."
Well - it was convenient while it lasted.  Sad.

[msbkk]

12 hours ago, Sheryl said:

Thanks for this and please update when package arrives. 

I received a prepaid tax package from Iherb last week. The parcel was brought by Flash Express to my home without any issues. Of course it makes purchases more expensive but you can have a peace of mind instead having to deal with customs.

[connda]

I just ran a test purchase.  For a $20 and change purchase the VAT was 7.73%, so so much for "7% VAT" as they are adding something else into the mix.

And like I said, the maximum purchase price to avoid duties used to be a flat $46.00. Now its based on exchange rate.  So at today's exchange rate the max order to avoid duties would be 1500/35.85 = 41.84.  So you have a $1.84 "window" between the $40 cap to avoid their outrageous shipping rates and avoiding another 5% to 7% in "duties and handling." 

 

The good old days are over.  On the flip side, the 35.85 exchange rate beats the hell out of exchange rates hovering just below 30 back 5 years ago.  So we've gain close to 20% on the value of the USD over the last 5 years, although I'm wondering what just happened at the exchange rate had bounce up close to 37, but the trend is your friend and the trend is upwards.  That offsets some of the pain for local purchases as it offsets local inflation.  However it makes it difficult to keep your order under 1500 THB.  Well, what the hell - at the end of the day I'd rather have that 20% and raising premium on the exchange rate as most of my purchases are in the local economy. 

[Lorry]

28 minutes ago, connda said:

my future purchases which will now only be items which are difficult to find in Thailand, and they will lose business from buyers in Thailand as a result imho

That's exactly the intention of the new rules.

Srettha wil be happy to hear it works. 

[connda]

2 minutes ago, msbkk said:

I received a prepaid tax package from Iherb last week. The parcel was brought by Flash Express to my home without any issues. Of course it makes purchases more expensive but you can have a peace of mind instead having to deal with customs.

Like I said, I don't have to try to figure out the difference between $40 for free shipping and the cap on duties which is pretty much non-existent now.  Now I'll just buy whatever I want in a single purchase.  More expensive but less headaches.  However, God help iHerb if they ever do away with free shipping as it will be the straw that breaks the camel's back for me personally.  Then?  Then they will be too expensive.  The only plus that keeps me a customer now is the variety of their items and $40 cap for "free shipping." 

[connda]

2 minutes ago, Lorry said:

That's exactly the intention of the new rules.

Srettha wil be happy to hear it works. 

Like many I'm looking back fondly on the days of Prayut. 

[msbkk]

2 hours ago, connda said:

I just ran a test purchase.  For a $20 and change purchase the VAT was 7.73%, so so much for "7% VAT" as they are adding something else into the mix.

And like I said, the maximum purchase price to avoid duties used to be a flat $46.00. Now its based on exchange rate.  So at today's exchange rate the max order to avoid duties would be 1500/35.85 = 41.84.  So you have a $1.84 "window" between the $40 cap to avoid their outrageous shipping rates and avoiding another 5% to 7% in "duties and handling." 

 

The good old days are over.  On the flip side, the 35.85 exchange rate beats the hell out of exchange rates hovering just below 30 back 5 years ago.  So we've gain close to 20% on the value of the USD over the last 5 years, although I'm wondering what just happened at the exchange rate had bounce up close to 37, but the trend is your friend and the trend is upwards.  That offsets some of the pain for local purchases as it offsets local inflation.  However it makes it difficult to keep your order under 1500 THB.  Well, what the hell - at the end of the day I'd rather have that 20% and raising premium on the exchange rate as most of my purchases are in the local economy. 

Around 8 USD shipping is not really outrageous for an international parcel. Go to any post office in a western country and you will see that 8 USD are in fact very reasonable. Of course your order value of just 23 USD in this case is quite low so that shipping seems to be high but is in fact not.