Shipping Household Items To Thailand - How Much Duty Did You Pay?

[samran]

Hi all,

We are moving our household goods up from Australia where my family is living and I've technically been based for a few years.

We are shipping up around 15 cubic metres of goods, mainly kitchen stuff, clothes linen books, a couple of bits of furniture (chest of drawers). Also thrown in will be 3 road bikes, a small TV, DVD player, a couple of externa monitors and an old laptop.

Normally, as a Thai citizen I'd go for the duty free thing for living outside of Thailand for a year, but because I've been buzzing back and forth between Aus and Thailand I'm not counting on qualifying for it.

So I'm wondering what type of customs duties have people here been charged in bringing their goods over - perhaps of a similar type.

All answers are good, just looking for an order of magnitude here based on peoples experiences.

Thanks in advance.

[Beetlejuice]

Here is my advice:

Firstly, most shipping companies will only take stuff as far as the port in Bangkok. If you want to continue on to any other destination within Thailand, you must arrange for the cases to be picked up by another carrier company in Thailand, preferable one based in the destination where you want the goods delivered.

Use a Thai name from the very beginning with the Australia company. If you declare the goods in a Farang name, you will be stung for a huge amount of Import tax, to be paid before you can retrieve your goods from the Bangkok port. They will be literally held for ransom until you pay.

If you bring new electrical items over, you will be charged import tax at a huge percent. Try and bring only your used electrical goods and one of each, you will again have to pay import tax on more than one item that the officials think you don't need. If you do try and bring in new electrical items, take off any wrapping and put on old plugs so they appear used.

When you hire your carrier in Thailand to collect the goods from port, don't tell them you have a computer, otherwise they will try and con you for more money. The Thai carrier will not open the cases and have no right to do so because the cases would have already been cleared by customs in Bangkok.

The Australian company charges by cubic space and not weight, but if the cases are considered too heavy, they will refuse to take them. The customs in Bangkok charge import tax by the value of the goods, but mostly waver this tax or charge a minimum for Thai people.

As for packing, wrap drinking glasses and crockery in newspaper. Put fragile items in with your good blankets or clothes so that they are buffered. This way you are not wasting any space on excess padding as your clothes are excellent buffers and will protect your fragile items when the cases are throw about by the carriers, which they will be.

And finally, the Thai carrier company may refused to bring cases from a depot in Bangkok to another Thailand destination until their truck is full, meaning, have to wait until other customers are also bringing their goods to fill the truck.

[elektrified]

I think you will have to pay about 30-40K THB in import duty. I say this because a freight forwarding agent here in Thailand once showed me about 15 documents from customs for 15 of their customers - all Thais - and the absolute minimum was 30K THB + the fee for the agent which was about 6-8K THB. Most were about 38-39K in duty. They were shipments coming from Europe, USA, and Japan as I recall.

[MrWorldwide]

_{http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-import-duty-and-tax-calculation/}

_{The fun part is lies in the classification and categorisation of a given item. Enjoy.}

Edited May 14, 2013 by mrbojangles
Increased font size

[samran]

I think you will have to pay about 30-40K THB in import duty. I say this because a freight forwarding agent here in Thailand once showed me about 15 documents from customs for 15 of their customers - all Thais - and the absolute minimum was 30K THB + the fee for the agent which was about 6-8K THB. Most were about 38-39K in duty. They were shipments coming from Europe, USA, and Japan as I recall.

That is really intersting to know. Cheers for that.

[Rsquared]

Not sure if this applies to you Sam....but when we moved here from Oz, we got all our stuff packed for us and 6 weeks later the twenty foot container showed up at our place here in Thailand.

The company we used was Wridgeways and all the forms we filled in was to state that it was all personal items and we weren't importing new goods and so we didn't pay any import duty. Total cost was $7,200 .

Not sure about your road bikes, they could be questionable.

Cheers.

[samran]

^^ cheers for that too. Good to know. The bikes are pushbikes - of the flat bar riding on the road variety All well and truely worn in.

[robblok]

^^ cheers for that too. Good to know. The bikes are pushbikes - of the flat bar riding on the road variety All well and truely worn in.

Samran I liked your post.. its sorry to see you commit suicide on a pushbike in Thailand

Just jokiing I hope you get it sorted out.

[samran]

^^ cheers for that too. Good to know. The bikes are pushbikes - of the flat bar riding on the road variety All well and truely worn in.

Samran I liked your post.. its sorry to see you commit suicide on a pushbike in Thailand

Just jokiing I hope you get it sorted out.

Tell me about it! Shall be used for riding around big parks only!

[simple1]

Samran: We imported household goods into Thailand from Australia about 18 months ago in Thai wifes name. At that time bycyles were not exempt from import duties so gave them away to friends. Cross check if this is still true as you may be hit hard.

Ask your agent in Oz if they have an business arrangement in place with Asian Tigers in BKK. They provide a great service and will delivery to your Thai address.

[samran]

Samran: We imported household goods into Thailand from Australia about 18 months ago in Thai wifes name. At that time bycyles were not exempt from import duties so gave them away to friends. Cross check if this is still true as you may be hit hard.

Ask your agent in Oz if they have an business arrangement in place with Asian Tigers in BKK. They provide a great service and will delivery to your Thai address.

Thanks for that. Leaning towards Allied Pickfords. Just looked up the thing about bicycles. As you say, not considered as part of household goods, so the tax on that might be up to 40%. Might be worth selling.

Cheers for the heads up.

[Langsuan Man]

I was offered a deal by the customs agent who handled my shipment. 40,000 THB for no receipt and clearance or 80,000 THB for a receipt and clearance. Since the shipping and clearing costs were free you can easily guess which option I took

It was all my household goods that I had accumulated over the years living in different parts of the world. No furniture but lots of electronics, clothes, books, computer parts, and annoyingly some items that had been purchased in Thailand. All of the stuff was in storage so I was not able to toss what I knew would interest Thai Customs

Just a guide of course, your mileage may vary since others have gotten away with just a minor amount

[simple1]

Samran: We imported household goods into Thailand from Australia about 18 months ago in Thai wifes name. At that time bycyles were not exempt from import duties so gave them away to friends. Cross check if this is still true as you may be hit hard.

Ask your agent in Oz if they have an business arrangement in place with Asian Tigers in BKK. They provide a great service and will delivery to your Thai address.

Thanks for that. Leaning towards Allied Pickfords. Just looked up the thing about bicycles. As you say, not considered as part of household goods, so the tax on that might be up to 40%. Might be worth selling.

Cheers for the heads up.

From one of your posts, am I correct you live in SE QLD? If so check out Conrad Removals in Caboolture. I used them as they has experience with shipping household goods to Thailand, they provided excellent service.

[belg]

if you would import your 10 year old car, thinking it is worthless in your western country, you might end up paying almost the new price here when importing with their crazy upto 307% import tax

[gerry123]

Here is my advice:

Firstly, most shipping companies will only take stuff as far as the port in Bangkok. If you want to continue on to any other destination within Thailand, you must arrange for the cases to be picked up by another carrier company in Thailand, preferable one based in the destination where you want the goods delivered.

Use a Thai name from the very beginning with the Australia company. If you declare the goods in a Farang name, you will be stung for a huge amount of Import tax, to be paid before you can retrieve your goods from the Bangkok port. They will be literally held for ransom until you pay.

If you bring new electrical items over, you will be charged import tax at a huge percent. Try and bring only your used electrical goods and one of each, you will again have to pay import tax on more than one item that the officials think you don't need. If you do try and bring in new electrical items, take off any wrapping and put on old plugs so they appear used.

When you hire your carrier in Thailand to collect the goods from port, don't tell them you have a computer, otherwise they will try and con you for more money. The Thai carrier will not open the cases and have no right to do so because the cases would have already been cleared by customs in Bangkok.

The Australian company charges by cubic space and not weight, but if the cases are considered too heavy, they will refuse to take them. The customs in Bangkok charge import tax by the value of the goods, but mostly waver this tax or charge a minimum for Thai people.

As for packing, wrap drinking glasses and crockery in newspaper. Put fragile items in with your good blankets or clothes so that they are buffered. This way you are not wasting any space on excess padding as your clothes are excellent buffers and will protect your fragile items when the cases are throw about by the carriers, which they will be.

And finally, the Thai carrier company may refused to bring cases from a depot in Bangkok to another Thailand destination until their truck is full, meaning, have to wait until other customers are also bringing their goods to fill the truck.

TRY ASIAN TIGERS HAVE GOOD WEB SITE DID MY MOVE FROM UK 2 YEAR AGO I QUALIFIED FOR 1 IMPORT DUTY FREE WITH NON O A VISA BEST CHECK WITH A/ T FIRST BUT I FOUND THEM GREAT

[grumpyfaceddog]

I have brought in 3 separate shipments of personal belongings over the last 4 years, twice from the UK and once from Australia, ranging in size from 4- 8 tea chest size boxes. The last shipment arrived about a month ago. I used Seven Seas door to door service each time, arrived quickly with no duty to pay each time.

[wjhall]

I shipped 300 kilos of household items, books, cds, computers etc etc from UK 6 years ago. I had to collect from Bangkok and spent best part of a day going from one office to another. I was expecting to pay 5-10,000 Baht but ended up paying 290 baht clearance fees. Nothing else at all!!!

[hansnl]

I think you will have to pay about 30-40K THB in import duty. I say this because a freight forwarding agent here in Thailand once showed me about 15 documents from customs for 15 of their customers - all Thais - and the absolute minimum was 30K THB + the fee for the agent which was about 6-8K THB. Most were about 38-39K in duty. They were shipments coming from Europe, USA, and Japan as I recall.

Keep in mind and do not forget the custom agent gets a percentage of the paid duties!

Also, I wonder if it might not be cheaper to put all your stuff inside a container.

My container was not even opened by the customs, I am farang and paid around 10,000 baht import duty only.

The shipping company in Holland paid the custom agent in Bangkok a fixed amount, which is quite normal.

The custom agent tried to get the most out of me, but I did not accept his paperwork, which meant the customs officer had to ask his superior.

The customs agent was then ordered to make a new customs declaration, based upon the ages of the articles.

My advice:

Hire a container, try to find a shipping agent in Aus who deals directly with a custom agent in Bangkok.

Total price paid: 1180 euro

Included:

- transport of the 20 feet container to my house in Holland, 3 hours time to load

- transport to Rotterdam harbourfor

- Fee for the custom agent and custom fee in Holland

- Transport of the container from Rotterdam to Bangkok

- Fee for the custom agent and custom fee in Thailand

- Trucking to Khon Kaen and 3 hours to unload the container.

Extra I had to pay storage for 2 days on the quai in Bangkok 400 baht

10000 baht import duty and tax

2200 baht for whatever?????

Keep in mind you have to make a list of eveything shipped.

Include the ages of all articles.

Edited May 14, 2013 by hansnl

[gamini]

If you move to Thailand there is no duty on importing household goods provided you import them within 6 months of moving to Thailand. I have moved back here three times so I know what I am talking about.

If you have paid duty you have been scammed. The agent must have pocketed the money having told you that you have to pay duty.

[Baerboxer]

If you move to Thailand there is no duty on importing household goods provided you import them within 6 months of moving to Thailand. I have moved back here three times so I know what I am talking about.

If you have paid duty you have been scammed. The agent must have pocketed the money having told you that you have to pay duty.

We were not charged any duty when we moved over here either. Quite a lot of new household goods for a family of 4.

[comserve]

I have only had one small consignment from Aus. It contained only personal effects plus one bicycle. We went to Bangkok & saw it through customs, with the help of a knowledgable lady who insisted we use her services. (Best thing we ever did) She knew where to go, who's palm to grease & the whole thing took about four hours. It did not cost anything except for paying this lady.

Apparently if you try to do it yourself it may take you days to get it released.

[apalink_thailand]

I seem to recall that used household items attract no duty however, there may be clearance charges. I do know from experience in the industry that the moving companies pad the bills and make money on so called fees. The majors here are formed into a cartel so most of them do it.

[leoman]

I have my shipment arriving tomorrow from the UK tomorrow 5 T chest size boxes used a company called Anglo Pacific all household goods its taken 3 months from the time it left my house in the UK to Udon Thani.Total cost 380 quid that included 40 quid for transport up to Udon I only have to pay 500 baht E Customs Regislation System which will be collected by the driver who delivers my goods.

More than happy with the way its all panned out you can even track the ship and the container your goods are in if you want to so a good experiece for me maybe not for others.

[khunPer]

I brought in a 20 feet container with households from Europe. Only one used item of each kind of electronics, some chairs, kitchenware, personal stuff etc.

Paid aprox. 25,000 bath in duty and vat. Custom cleared in one day from morning till afternoon, which of course costed a little “overtime fee”. For everything, customs, clearence, fees and moving the 20 feet container down south and offloading, I paid around 60,000 in total.

[apalink_thailand]

Here is the link to the Thai Customs Department regarding used household goods. : http://www.customs.go.th/wps/wcm/connect/custen/individuals/importing+used+or+secondhand+household+effects/importingusedsecondhandhouseholdeffects+

[candypants]

Samran: We imported household goods into Thailand from Australia about 18 months ago in Thai wifes name. At that time bycyles were not exempt from import duties so gave them away to friends. Cross check if this is still true as you may be hit hard.

Ask your agent in Oz if they have an business arrangement in place with Asian Tigers in BKK. They provide a great service and will delivery to your Thai address.

Thanks for that. Leaning towards Allied Pickfords. Just looked up the thing about bicycles. As you say, not considered as part of household goods, so the tax on that might be up to 40%. Might be worth selling.

Cheers for the heads up.

however if you box em and flt with them, it shouldnt be an issue

Edited May 14, 2013 by candypants

[jeffandgop]

I shipped a 20 foot container of household goods last year from the US to Bangkok. I paid 18K TB in duty.

[bangkokburning]

Can anyone comment on shipping older items, "antiquish" sorts of things. Tables, clocks, lamps, furniture mainly. American. English porcelin, crrystal glasses and items.

When my parents pass I most likely get these instead of my siblings. Friend just had his last parent die, said auctioneer, rstate sales gave him dick for it. Rather like much of the stuff. If Im only going to get a few K for it, Id rather keep it.

Thanks.

[JeffreyWitty]

"Use a Thai name from the very beginning with "

What? I plan to move with my Thai wife from South Korea with everything in her name. She took my last name when we got married.

Should we put our goods in her MAIDEN name? All of her ID (national ID AND Passport) where changed to her new last name.

Or are we just outta luck?

She's 100% Thai and been living overseas with me for years (only a couple vacations to Thailand yearly for a couple weeks)

[rickb]

When my Thai wife and I shipped our household goods from the USA to Thailand, we used a US-based company to box everything up and put into a container. Items that we were a little worried about having problems with the Thai customs officers were put in the container first on the assumption that the container would not be totally unloaded and inspected. That's what I would suggest you do with your bicycles, if you decide to ship them. We also had the packing company coordinate with Asian Tigers on the Thailand end of the shipment. As others have already stated, Asian Tigers was fantastic. Since my wife had stayed in the USA for many years, we were not charged any import duties or taxes. Asian Tigers asked that we pay a "facilitating payment" of THB 3,000 only to help mover the container through customs quicker. This charge was actually included in our original estimate and final billing. Overall, we had a very easy move. Total cost was about US$ 7,000 for the entire shipment, including delivery to our door in Suphanburi and unpacking.