Question Bringing Personal Items To Thailand...

[rainman]

from what i understand so far is you can bring your personal items with you to thailand tax-free if you've had the proper retirement visa for *one year* at least. i also understand that if you haven't had it for at least one year, you need to pay a certain percentage of tax on items other than clothes, books and such items. from what the customs/tax office told me, items such as CDs and DVDs/videos have a 20-50% tax of the new value (when it was bought) if it is brought to thailand before having the visa for one year.

my question is ...to avoid that, is it possible to send these items in the name of someone that already has the proper visa for at least one year? even if they haven't ever lived in the country the items are coming from? i realize this isn't the most legal way to do things but i'm just wondering if anyone has experience with something like this.

..and the reason i'm asking is my mom is moving to thailand next month and she would like to take all her personal items such as clothes, books, music cds, videos, photos and as we were told, videos and music cds, even though they're over 5 years old, have a 50% tax of the new value that the customs officer "feels is appropriate" ....unless....she can prove she's had the retirement visa in thailand for 1 year, then everything is tax free. so the idea was to have it sent to thailand under the name of a friend that has had the visa in thailand for over 10 years ..but has never lived in the originating country. would customs check if he had lived in that country where the items come from or not?

[lopburi3]

Sorry but Retirement visa of any kind does not seem to provide tax free import. See the red print.

http://www.customs.go.th/Customs-Eng/House...nuNme=HouseHold

[rainman]

well, that's what they told us after my girlfriend called several times to the tax/customs office. perhaps they don't know themselves? i clearly stated she would be applying for a non-immigrant retirement visa and they stated that while certain items have different taxes (computers 50%, books 20%, etc) there would be no import tax after one year.

[Sophon]

well, that's what they told us after my girlfriend called several times to the tax/customs office. perhaps they don't know themselves? i clearly stated she would be applying for a non-immigrant retirement visa and they stated that while certain items have different taxes (computers 50%, books 20%, etc) there would be no import tax after one year.

What you have been told sounds very strange and contrary to what others have reported.

If you read the information on the link lopburi supplied, in order to get the tax rebate you need to have been abroad for at least one year. I suspect that is the "after one year" you have been quoted, and it's a miscommunication, that you would get the rebate after having been back at least one year.

It doesn't really make sense to require you to have been back in hailand for at least one year, before you can get a tax rebate on importing household goods (I know common sense is not always to be expected ). And the link from lopburi also states: " It is important that the used/secondhand household effects must be imported not earlier than one month before or not later than six months after the arrival of the importers", which makes sense to me. That way the make sure that you don't continue importing goods, that were not part of "your household", when you were living abroad.

Sophon

[rainman]

ok that makes more sense. i did read that exact same website a few weeks ago but then called customs and they told me a slightly different story, so honestly i'm not sure what is what right now. so for someone that has never lived in thailand but is coming into thailand with a 30 days stamp, then goes on to make the non-immigrant retirement visa with a one year extension *before* the personal items (only clothes, books, videos and photos) arrive, there would still be a tax, right? does anyone know how much that is? i surely hope its nothing like 50% of whatever value they put on family photos and 20 year old books...