Posting Gifts To Thailand

[maestroclique]

Hi there

I've read a few conflicting things about taxes charged on gifts sent to Thailand through the post.

For postal items sent by mail to be exempt from duty, do they have to be valued under 1,000 or 500 Baht?

I was hoping to send some wine (Is the sending of alcohol permitted?) and perfume (Which I was able to obtain under the value of 1,000 baht). But I am worried that Customs officers may inspect the package and assess their value to be a higher amount.

If anyone has any info, could they please clarify this for me?

Many thanks

Sandy

[neverburi]

Hi there

I've read a few conflicting things about taxes charged on gifts sent to Thailand through the post.

For postal items sent by mail to be exempt from duty, do they have to be valued under 1,000 or 500 Baht?

I was hoping to send some wine (Is the sending of alcohol permitted?) and perfume (Which I was able to obtain under the value of 1,000 baht). But I am worried that Customs officers may inspect the package and assess their value to be a higher amount.

If anyone has any info, could they please clarify this for me?

Many thanks

Sandy 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Have sent many things via post to Isaan from mobile phone,perfume

toys,documents never been a problem every was received.

NB

[wimpy]

Hi there

I've read a few conflicting things about taxes charged on gifts sent to Thailand through the post.

For postal items sent by mail to be exempt from duty, do they have to be valued under 1,000 or 500 Baht?

I was hoping to send some wine (Is the sending of alcohol permitted?) and perfume (Which I was able to obtain under the value of 1,000 baht). But I am worried that Customs officers may inspect the package and assess their value to be a higher amount.

If anyone has any info, could they please clarify this for me?

Many thanks

Sandy 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Have sent many things via post to Isaan from mobile phone,perfume

toys,documents never been a problem every was received.

NB

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I believe the question was about duties. In my experience customs pay little attention to the declared value. They have their own guidelines for assessing duty.

If you send by surface mail, you often escape any duty.

I have never sent alcohol, so can't help there.

[bino]

It seems to me that I have paid duty every time something is sent to Thailand by courier, such as Fedex. Never paid any duty on conventional post.

Edited September 21, 2005 by bino

[wimpy]

It seems to me that I have paid duty every time something is sent to Thailand by courier, such as Fedex. Hever paid any duty on conventional post.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, they apparently look very closely at items sent by courier.

I have had to pay duty on items sent by normal airmail about a third of the time. Maybe because these are usually spare parts for a motorcycle?

[Nepal4me]

I have had experiences where I simply never received mail from abroad. I'm told others have this problem. The post office boys and girls see letters from abroad, think maybe there's money in them and just rip them open. Keep the money if any and then just toss the letter in the bin. I have since used FedEx to get letters thru to me. I would think that boxes by post would have the same problem, i.e. the post office staff might just open them and if it's useful stuff keep it themselves, if not just bin it. Sounds like people have been able to receive mail. Any comments on this situation?

[wimpy]

I have had experiences where I simply never received mail from abroad.  I'm told others have this problem.  The post office boys and girls see letters from abroad, think maybe there's money in them and just rip them open.  Keep the money if any and then just toss the letter in the bin.  I have since used FedEx to get letters thru to me.  I would think that boxes by post would have the same problem, i.e. the post office staff might just open them and if it's useful stuff keep it themselves, if not just bin it.  Sounds like people have been able to receive mail.  Any comments on this situation?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have never lost a parcel. This includes many surface mail shipments.

[wimpy]

I take that back. I did lose a dvd from Amazon once. They sent another.

[neverburi]

Hi there

I've read a few conflicting things about taxes charged on gifts sent to Thailand through the post.

For postal items sent by mail to be exempt from duty, do they have to be valued under 1,000 or 500 Baht?

I was hoping to send some wine (Is the sending of alcohol permitted?) and perfume (Which I was able to obtain under the value of 1,000 baht). But I am worried that Customs officers may inspect the package and assess their value to be a higher amount.

If anyone has any info, could they please clarify this for me?

Many thanks

Sandy 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Have sent many things via post to Isaan from mobile phone,perfume

toys,documents never been a problem every was received.

NB

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I believe the question was about duties. In my experience customs pay little attention to the declared value. They have their own guidelines for assessing duty.

If you send by surface mail, you often escape any duty.

I have never sent alcohol, so can't help there.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As i said sent a mobile phone from OZ worth approx. 8000 baht

received OK no tax no problem.

NB

[Crossy]

I've had no problems with stuff posted (DHL is another matter ).

Always addressed in Thai (with Thailand in Roman script at the bottom), truthful on the customs slip but marked as 'gift of no commercial value'.

I've sent perfume with no issues but not tried alcohol so there may be a pitfall there.

[NextStationBangkok]

Ask the sender to put the value of the goods 0 Baht or your pay tax as per the value slip carries, it is as simple that. Our lazy African customers sends CD with data, mentions $30 in cover for postal paid, we pay tax here, where as if they upload to our FTP it will cost us nothing to download. You can also mention "Birthday Gift" -Free in the amount. Toxin thinks any word contains Foreign/Foreigner TAX them . Toxin rak Toxin !!! .

[wimpy]

Ask the sender to put the value of the goods 0 Baht or your pay tax as per the value slip carries, it is as simple that. Our lazy African customers sends CD with data, mentions $30 in cover for postal paid, we pay tax here, where as if they upload to our FTP it will cost us nothing to download. You can also mention "Birthday Gift" -Free in the amount. Toxin thinks any word contains Foreign/Foreigner TAX them  . Toxin rak Toxin !!!  .

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That is not correct.

I had a used part for my car sent here. Customs based the duty on a value found in a book the thickness of a phone book. I was there while they looked it up. This was despite the stated value on the waybill and the invoice I presented. Obviously the discrepancy ws in their favor.

[Maestro]

I was hoping to send some wine (Is the sending of alcohol permitted?) and perfume (Which I was able to obtain under the value of 1,000 baht). But I am worried that Customs officers may inspect the package and assess their value to be a higher amount.

I recommend against trying to send wine. The importation of alcoholic beverages requires a special import permit.

As others have reported from their experience: send by Post Office letter mail (not parcel), not courier. This greatly reduces the possibility of customs inspection. Postal letters can weigh up to 2 kg. Postal parcels almost always get inspected; duty sometimes charged, sometimes not.

The sender should complete the green customs declaration form CN 22: describe the content (just writing “gift” will make it necessary for the customs officer to open the item to see what it really contains), tick the box for “gift”, declare a low value, anything that looks reasonable, from 1 to 10 dollars, sign the form.

Don’t have too many gift items sent to the same address at short intervals, instead send one per month for example.

High-value items like perfume and spare parts are more likely to attract the attention of the customs officer than regular stuff like books, food items and the like. As one poster mentioned, for certain items customs can easily look up the real value in a book they have.

I have a feeling that up to a certain value per month gifts are considered exempt from duty but I do not know what value that is; this is why I recommend to declare a low value. Zero value seems unreasonable because everything has a certain value (we are not talking of commercial value here – also a gift has a value, its purchase price, but since the customs office usually cannot know this it’s OK to declare a lower value). For a CD with data files, for example, I declare the blank CD’s cost (CHF 0.50), description “CD-ROM with product information” or “…photos” or whatever.

Important, however, always to tick that box “gift” (the other option would be “commercial sample”)

[howler]

It seems to me that I have paid duty every time something is sent to Thailand by courier, such as Fedex. Never paid any duty on conventional post.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I sent a package to gf via UPS. Nothing special except maybee the digital camera, but even that was not top of the line. UPS would not deliver from BKK to Patty unless she paid them 2,000 Bht!!!! I could not believe this and called my UPS agent stateside, he said he had no control of what happens in LOS but refunded the full amount of post

[maestroclique]

Thanks everyone for your responses! I really appreciate your advice and guidance

I'm thinking that I will probably try to select some gifts that are less likely to have a duty tax imposed on them, and then send them by Post Office letter mail as suggested to avoid Customs Inspection.

I'd feel terrible if my Thai friends were told to pay a huge amount of tax so I'll save the perfume and wine till April next year, when I can deliver them personally!

Cheers

Sandy