Import Tax

[hilly999]

Im thinking of buying a couple of cheap new surfboards of the net from europe. total about £150 £200, |How much import tax do u think i will get or will i not get taxed on them? Any advise would be welcome

[CWMcMurray]

Import duty would be 10% of CIF Value (Invoice value + Freight cost + Insurance cost)

Plus VAT 7% ( CIF Value + Duty amount)

[QED]

I think you will find the official import duty calculation is:

Think of a number

Double it

Add 1,000 baht for good measure

Round up to the nearest 1,000

Source: thaimcikeymousetaxes.com

[hilly999]

what would happen if i was to change the invoice to say for example £50 via ebay or get them delivered to a friend in the uk then he make an invoice then 10% of £50 +the delivery cost then the 7% vat it might work out quite cheap but do you think that would be found out?

[CWMcMurray]

There is no way to say to a certainty, but if they do catch it and decide that the goods are undervalued then customs will assign their own value to the goods which could be significantly higher...

if you are talking about the difference of 100 GPB on the invoice value then the difference is not going to be that great

100 * 10% = 10

110 * 7% = 7.70

Total difference = GBP 17.70

If you are buying for 150 GBP, it is going to cost you more in freight and taxes than the value of the goods... but if you can not find anything here in Thailand that you like then it may be worth it.

One thing to watch out for is going to be the freight costs... surfboards are not terribly heavy, but the can be long. Make sure you find out the DIMs prior to buying them as this is likely to be volumetric cargo.

So if sent by one of the courier companies you could be looking at quite a high rate.

Also rates for Air freight out of the UK to Thailand are very reasonable right now, so even a shipment of 35-40kg is likely to be less by air freight than DHL/UPS/FedEx