Customs Duty on Mail

[White Tiger]

Just received 2 parcels from the UK containing Christmas gifts (lucky me). They were both sent using International Recorded delivery from the UK - so they had to be signed for at this end.  Both of the parcels had completed Customs Declarations attached to them listing the contents.

 

As you might know already, the Customs Declaration also has a space for entering the value of the goods. On parcel 1 the value was left blank. On parcel 2 the value was stated as £80.  (Which is approx THB4,000 at current exchange rates – and someone from Thai Customs had written 4,000 on the envelope). 

 

Got a nasty surprise because parcel 2 attracted Customs Duty in Thailand of almost THB1,600.  (For the 1st parcel there was no duty.)  So a parcel worth 4,000 Baht attracted 1,600 Baht of duty.

 

The Thai post office showed me the official form from Thai Customs which explained to me why duty was charged. It said that the value of the goods in the parcel was over THB1,000 and they had discretion to charge duty on imported items valued at over THB1,000.  The Thai post office refused to release the parcel to me until I paid the duty. I didn’t really think I was importing anything – just receiving some Christmas gifts in the post from my family back in the UK.

 

My friendly neighbourhood post office is in a small provincial town in rural Issan – a place called Kaset Sombun. The staff were just doing their jobs. Someone in Bangkok Customs had told them to collect the duty so they had no choice in the matter. But I’m a bit miffed that someone who works in Thai customs in Bangkok exercised his/her discretion to decide that a small parcel containing Christmas gifts constituted me importing goods to the country and should attract duty. Surely that can’t be right?  Where's the Christmas spirit in the land of smiles.

 

I am posting this to warn others about this risk – particularly at this time of year.  If you have friends/family who are sending you Christmas gifts from overseas, then if you want to minimise the risk of being hit with Customs Duty when the gift arrives in Thailand, you might want to consider suggesting to your friends/family that they leave the value blank on the Customs Declaration, or enter a value that is less than THB1,000.

[MichaelJackson]

Had it been marked "gift" there is a chance, but only a chance, that it would have gone through. The error was the £80 value. That attracted the 20% import duty.
Just like in reverse, you send to the Uk over £30 (I think it is) It also attracts duty, not exclusive to Thailand, many countries have this.
Best way is to just send standard airmail and no issues, in my experience.

[White Tiger]

Had it been marked "gift" there is a chance, but only a chance, that it would have gone through. The error was the £80 value. That attracted the 20% import duty.
Just like in reverse, you send to the Uk over £30 (I think it is) It also attracts duty, not exclusive to Thailand, many countries have this.
Best way is to just send standard airmail and no issues, in my experience.

 

My parcel attracted 40% duty.

 

Even with standard airmail, when you send a parcel you still have to complete a Customs Declaration.

[ukrules]

I had a pretty expensive leather bound hard back writing book arrive today from the UK - with nothing to pay. It cost around 6000 Baht including shipping and they sent it via DHL.

 

I believe DHL will take care of any duties and bill the original sender in this case.

 

If they deicde to charge it there are two options :

 

1 - Don't pay and lose the package

2 - Pay up and hope for better luck next time

 

So far I've dumped one package and never had to pay anything.

 

[White Tiger]

^^^^^Yep, thanks ukrules.^^^^^

 

Like you, I've had parcels in the past with no duty to pay. This is the 1st time they've made me pay duty.  So I have never before realised there could be a liability for duty on this type of item.

 

The Customs Officer has discretion about whether or not to charge duty. Just wasn't my lucky day when parcel 2 arrived. The Declaration did say 'Xmas Gifts' (as well as listing the items) so I guess the Customs Officer didn't have much Christmas spirit.

 

 

[White Tiger]

I had a pretty expensive leather bound hard back writing book arrive today from the UK - with nothing to pay. It cost around 6000 Baht including shipping and they sent it via DHL.

 

I believe DHL will take care of any duties and bill the original sender in this case.

 

If they deicde to charge it there are two options :

 

1 - Don't pay and lose the package

2 - Pay up and hope for better luck next time

 

So far I've dumped one package and never had to pay anything.

 

 

Curious, was a value stated on the Customs Declaration?

[yankee99]

Not sure you need to warn anyone about anything. This is the law here over 1000baht you have to pay duty.... Usually value + 30% X 7% vat. Seems customs is doing their job properly....

Honestly if you think because its a gift or marked a gift it should be treated differently? Every parcel coming in the country would say gift correct?

[7by7]

When we send things to Thailand from the UK we put 'Gift' as the contents and 'NCV' as the value.

 

'NCV' standing for 'No Commercial Value.'

 

Never had this problem, but that's probably down to none of our parcels ever being checked by Thai customs.

 

BTW, had it been the other way round and a parcel you had sent from Thailand to the UK been checked by UK customs and assessed as being liable for duty, then the recipient would not only have to have paid the duty, but an £8 post office handling charge as well!

[ukrules]

 

I had a pretty expensive leather bound hard back writing book arrive today from the UK - with nothing to pay. It cost around 6000 Baht including shipping and they sent it via DHL.

 

I believe DHL will take care of any duties and bill the original sender in this case.

 

If they deicde to charge it there are two options :

 

1 - Don't pay and lose the package

2 - Pay up and hope for better luck next time

 

So far I've dumped one package and never had to pay anything.

 

 

Curious, was a value stated on the Customs Declaration?

 

 

 

There is no customs declaration on the package, however DHL is a private courier so they probably operate on a completely different basis to the post office. Having used DHL to send packages before I know they enter the value into their computer system.

 

I generally ask people to send things from the UK using the 'royal mail international signed for' service and I've had no issues so far with that one.

 

The only problem I had was with FedEx. I will avoid FedEx in future.

[donniereadit]

I'm going to try registered mail from the USA with no insurance and a value of 0 and see what happens.

[ukrules]

I'm going to try registered mail from the USA with no insurance and a value of 0 and see what happens.

 

For the contents of the package I often put 'Documents' along with the zero or very low value.

[White Tiger]

Not sure you need to warn anyone about anything. This is the law here over 1000baht you have to pay duty.... Usually value + 30% X 7% vat. Seems customs is doing their job properly....

Honestly if you think because its a gift or marked a gift it should be treated differently? Every parcel coming in the country would say gift correct?

 

From the customs form I read today it appears it's not the law here that over 1,000 Baht you have to pay duty. But Customs Officers do have the discretion to charge duty when the value of the goods is over 1,000 Baht.

 

Until today I didn't know that an item sent as a gift may attract import duty. I thought import duty was only payable when there was a deliberate attempt to import goods into the country. There are probably others on this forum who are as ignorant of this provision as I was, so despite what you say I hope my warning will be of some value, particularly at this time of year when many people may be getting parcels in the post.

[7by7]

Best way is to just send standard airmail and no issues, in my experience.

Even with standard airmail, when you send a parcel you still have to complete a Customs Declaration.

Yes, you do.

Not that we would send a parcel just standard airmail anyway. If you do and no one is at home when it's delivered then the postman will usually simply leave it by the door/gate.

 

A less than honest passerby sees a parcel from the UK, or anywhere, just lying there outside the house; what's liable to happen?

 

Letters, fine; but parcels we always send international signed for.

[donniereadit]

 

I'm going to try registered mail from the USA with no insurance and a value of 0 and see what happens.

 

For the contents of the package I often put 'Documents' along with the zero or very low value.

 

 

Do you insure the package against loss, or just take the risk it won't be lost/stolen?
 

[thailandbeachisland]

Customs do what they want everywhere in the world and you are wrong.

 

Thank you for warning us but we haven't just landed on earth yesterday :-)

 

The good point ? Now you know !

 

 

[thailandbeachisland]

Not sure you need to warn anyone about anything. This is the law here over 1000baht you have to pay duty.... Usually value + 30% X 7% vat. Seems customs is doing their job properly....

Honestly if you think because its a gift or marked a gift it should be treated differently? Every parcel coming in the country would say gift correct?

 

 

Next time I will send my Porsche from Germany and declare it as a gift :-)

 

Incredible that someone does not know the rule that is the same anywhere in the world actually.

 

Fedex, DHL, UPS or any other courier company just apply customs duty on customs behalf and automatically ask to pay the fee, they all are the same and only Thai post is different because customs officers check themselves some of the Thai post parcel and tax what they want (unlike courier company it is not the post office staff that apply tax on parcels).

[Crossy]

We recently received a small egg incubator from Australia via EMS, declared at about 4000 Baht, duty plus VAT came in at about 500 Baht. Since 90% of packages get through with no duty I happily paid.

 

I'm intrigued as to what your item was to attract such a high rate?

[yourauntbob]

I had a pretty expensive leather bound hard back writing book arrive today from the UK - with nothing to pay. It cost around 6000 Baht including shipping and they sent it via DHL.

 

I believe DHL will take care of any duties and bill the original sender in this case.

 

If they deicde to charge it there are two options :

 

1 - Don't pay and lose the package

2 - Pay up and hope for better luck next time

 

So far I've dumped one package and never had to pay anything.

 

 

 

I find DHL to be the worst, everytime I have had something come in or go out with them there has a been a duty.  Using standard post I have never had a problem.
 

[varun]

As mentioned above, DHL & FedEx are customs magnets, avoid them like the plague for having international items shipped to you.

 

 

[harrry]

Clothes and shoes have a very high duty rate here as they are protected industries.  You pay tax based on the rate of the highest valued item in the package.

[ezzra]

Thai postal custom is like playing a Russian roulette, is just that instead one bullet

in the revolver magazine, it 5 bullets in it, so now you spin the cylinder point to your

parcel and squeeze.....

[Toscano]

I have the same irritating experience . I buy a special medicinal cream from a pharmacy in Australia that costs about bt5000 per tube . The company write
100 for value and I have had to pay bt1200 customs duty each time . A friend buys the same and has not yet been charged customs duty . I am currently
waiting arrival of 3 tubes , my friend tells me that even with 3 tubes the company will write 100 as value , so fingers crossed . I do feel badly about it because this very beneficial cream cannot be purchased in Thailand .

[easyozzi]

I've given up having packages sent to Thailand - in the instances where the packages have arrived I had to pay 40% duty but I have had three packages which have went "missing"

[Jeffrey346]

It's just like any other Thai government agency. It all depends on the individual handling the package. I have received parcels valued at B9000 and paid nothing. 

Most recently, I ordered vitamins from America. Are they sold here? Yes @ 4 times the US price.

The customs form showed the full value I paid B2400. Thai customs picked one ingredient listed on the bottle and decided it was considered a controlled substance. They said they are going to confiscate the package.  After 2 days of arguing by phone, they agreed to release the package but I would have to pay B1200. plus 7% VAT.Bottom line....  Anytime you receive goods from your home country, be prepared to pay or just don't order anything.

[Arkady]

I believe that the Customs Dept has indeed given the PO discretion not to charge duty (and VAT) and anything under B1,000.  In effect I think most POs tend to set the limit at US$50 for convenience.  Since most of them don't know the difference between farang currencies, you usually get away with anything up to 50 pounds and 50 euros as well.  I have sometimes had small packages declared at US$70 come through tax free and once or twice been charged on packages declared at less than US$50 but nearly always those get through.  It makes no difference whether they are gifts or not.  There is no exemption for these in the customs laws.

 

Couriers are a different matter. They use dubious crooked clearing agents who charge on everything, no matter how small, and often overcharge, probably taking a cut from Customs with which they have an unhealthy relationship.  Never have stuff sent by couriers, if you can avoid it.  I have even been charged duty and VAT on the freight value of an unsolicited catalogue sent via DHL.

[White Tiger]

 

Not sure you need to warn anyone about anything. This is the law here over 1000baht you have to pay duty.... Usually value + 30% X 7% vat. Seems customs is doing their job properly....

Honestly if you think because its a gift or marked a gift it should be treated differently? Every parcel coming in the country would say gift correct?

 

 

Next time I will send my Porsche from Germany and declare it as a gift :-)

 

Incredible that someone does not know the rule that is the same anywhere in the world actually.

 

Fedex, DHL, UPS or any other courier company just apply customs duty on customs behalf and automatically ask to pay the fee, they all are the same and only Thai post is different because customs officers check themselves some of the Thai post parcel and tax what they want (unlike courier company it is not the post office staff that apply tax on parcels).

 

 

Thanks for that contribution.

 

In Thailand Customs have the discretion about whether or not to charge duty when an item is declared as having value above 1,000 Baht. There is a reason they are given that discretion.  It’s so that they can use some common sense about applying duties.  Not everything will be charged duty even when it’s value is above the 1,000 Baht threshold.

 

Until this episode my own experience in Thailand has been that I have never been charged duty, even though some parcels sent to me have been declared as having value higher than 1,000 Baht.  But all my parcels have been small things from my family in the UK – marked as gifts for birthdays and Christmas (as well as having contents listed).  So I deduce that in the past my experience has been that the Customs Officer has exercised his/her discretion in my favour.  It’s clear from this thread that other posters have also received parcels in the mail of value where duty could have been charged but has not.  Again, it seems to me the Customs Officer has exercised discretion in favour of the addressee.  So in my mind the pattern that emerges is that where the parcel is clearly a gift and contains items appropriate as a gift Customs have chosen not to apply duty. As I see it, in these types of situation the addressee is not ‘importing’ the goods into Thailand – the addressee is just the lucky recipient of a gift/windfall/Godsend/good fortune/surprise.

 

Clearly in any instance where an item is ordered over the internet and sent to the addressee by mail, a commercial transaction has taken place. The addressee has made a purchase and is consciously importing goods into the country. Commercial practice here would mean that the imported goods were not marked as a ‘gift’, nor could they be.  In this case, where the value exceeds 1,000 Baht I would probably expect a Customs Officer not to exercise his/her discretion to waive any duty, and instead duty would be charged.  It's right that duty should be paid where goods are imported and the value of the goods is above the threshold for charging duty.

 

Also, where an individual arranges for a large value item (you gave the example of a Porsche) to be packaged overseas and sent to him in Thailand, then the individual is clearly importing the goods to Thailand.  (It is not the windfall/Godsend/good fortune that a surprise gift is).  So in this case duty would be payable. Trying to circumvent the duty by marking the package as a ‘gift’, or by declaring it as having a value of less than 1,000 Baht, is dishonest (illegal?) and would be simply inviting closer scrutiny by Customs – it would probably attract not only duty but probably also additional penalties. I would suggest that the likelihood of additional penalties if caught by the authorities is probably the main reason people are not trying this.  (In any event I understand there are special requirements applying to the import of cars into Thailand, but that’s probably something for a different thread).

 

I understand that the rules are probably the same, or similar, in every country in the world.  I find it incredible that some people are not aware that items marked as a ‘gift’, and which are genuine gifts and not of excessive value, seldom attract duty. 

 

In every country I have lived the treatment by the Customs authorities of parcels sent to me through the post has been the same. Items that are of relatively low value and are marked as a ‘gift’, have not attracted duty. I can only imagine that the authorities have had a similar discretion to that the Thai authorities have, or I have been extremely lucky up to now. My guess is that where the Customs authorities have discretion about whether or not to charge duty, they have exercised some common sense.  Sadly I recognise that common sense is a commodity in short supply in Thailand.

[8OA8]

I now consider it a bonus, whenever I have a package from overseas delivered without any duty payable. Used to be different and it was only on the odd occasion that duty had to be paid, but not any more. This is regardless of whether being sent by mail, or the international couriers. I have found the international couriers are more convenient, because when they phone you to advise duty is payable, you can make the payment by credit card details given over the phone, rather than visiting the post office to pay the duty.

[jackflash]

I totally agree with above post.

 

I never use Couriers if at all possible (especially DHL) !!!!!

[yourauntbob]

I've given up having packages sent to Thailand - in the instances where the packages have arrived I had to pay 40% duty but I have had three packages which have went "missing"

 

Mail carriers here are really hit and miss.  I normally have any packages arrive at my school as it is located on a main road in BKK.  If i send the stuff directly to my house then it normally doesnt get there. 

 

A friend of mine once visited and stayed at my place.  When he got back to the states he sent me a thank you note.  Not thinking about it, he wrote the address in cursive.  9 months later i got the post card.  I image that it sat at the post office for 8 months while they waited for someone who could read the address.

[Bpuumike]

Had it been marked "gift" there is a chance, but only a chance, that it would have gone through. The error was the £80 value. That attracted the 20% import duty.
Just like in reverse, you send to the Uk over £30 (I think it is) It also attracts duty, not exclusive to Thailand, many countries have this.
Best way is to just send standard airmail and no issues, in my experience.

 
My parcel attracted 40% duty.
 
Even with standard airmail, when you send a parcel you still have to complete a Customs Declaration.

But you were importing whatever the items were and the maximum value before attracting duty is Thb1,000.

I get my senders from the UK and Spain, standard airmail, not to state a value and to write "Not available in Thailand" on the back of the package and have had no problems... yet