It appears to be common practise, in my experience to date, that items bought within the region are always marked as 'gifts' on the customs declaration. I am looking to buy some LED light bulbs from Hong Kong, as they are rare as hens teeth here and priced accordingly; the Thais are still on the transition to CFL's as can be seen by the mind-boggling selection in your local Homepro et al. Is this 'gifts' declaration an informally accepted practise or is it possible/likely I could get stung with some ludicrous import duty? The duty can be bad enough but then the tax on the duty and the tax on the tax + duty would soon wipe out any savings. Thanks

Makes no difference whatsoever,. if you declare a value, that will make no difference either, the thais will spend hours accessing its value and bill you for a stupid amount in most cases, only today i paid 3500 baht taxes on a parcel declared at 75 pounds ,......even if i send to the uk now as "gift " if its over 18 pounds taxes are applicable ,AND a handling charge,.

The duty can be bad enough but then the tax on the duty and the tax on the tax + duty would soon wipe out any savings. Thanks

Reckon on them being ransomed for about the price you would pay for them anyway.

It appears to be common practise, in my experience to date, that items bought within the region are always marked as 'gifts' on the customs declaration. I am looking to buy some LED light bulbs from Hong Kong, as they are rare as hens teeth here and priced accordingly; the Thais are still on the transition to CFL's as can be seen by the mind-boggling selection in your local Homepro et al. Is this 'gifts' declaration an informally accepted practise or is it possible/likely I could get stung with some ludicrous import duty? The duty can be bad enough but then the tax on the duty and the tax on the tax + duty would soon wipe out any savings. Thanks

Just bring it in using conventional post system and have it delivered to your house, have "birthday gift" written on it. Don't use any couriers. It's a gamble each time, but chances are this will not cost you a penny and the transportation will be cheaper.

Edited October 2, 200916 yr by jayjayjayjay

If you use a customs broker, there is never any case of "Ransom". Each type of goods has an applicable HS Code, that HS Code has a tariff amount assigned to it. You can even look this up yourself online.

Customs Tariff

If our import via "Freight", there is no such thing as "Gift". A shipper's invoice will need to be submitted and if Import Duty and tax are applicable they will need to be paid.

If you chosse to put "No Value" on the invoice, then you are playing with fire... if no value is given, then you are leaving up to the customs officer on duty at the time the goods are cleared to assigne any value he sees fit.

You should also be aware that many types of Light Bulbs require an import permit. This means that if you do not have the required import permit the goods could be siezed by customs and may result in additional penatlies.

I recomend consulting a customs broker.