Customs Duty on Mail

[p_brownstone]

If you want to avoid paying duties, just insist people that ship to you specify “Deliver Duty Paid” (DDP) rather than CIF on the invoice.

 

 

How on earth will that help?!

 

If you "insist" that your Supplier Delivers "Duty Paid" - how can you possibly believe that that notation on any Shipping Document absolves you from Import Tax and therefore there is no Duty Payable?

 

Your Supplier will just calculate THEIR estimation of the Duty due (almost certainly at the maximum rate, regardless of the actual Product), and charge it to you on their Invoice; which you then must pay - obviously - before they will Ship your Purchase!

 

I believe Amazon do this and will refund you any excess Duty they charged you on their original Invoice once they have actually paid local Import Taxes - good luck getting a similar Refund for overpaid Duty from some one-off Seller on eBay.

 

Patrick

[mogandave]

 

If you want to avoid paying duties, just insist people that ship to you specify “Deliver Duty Paid” (DDP) rather than CIF on the invoice.

 

 

How on earth will that help?!

 

If you "insist" that your Supplier Delivers "Duty Paid" - how can you possibly believe that that notation on any Shipping Document absolves you from Import Tax and therefore there is no Duty Payable?

 

Your Supplier will just calculate THEIR estimation of the Duty due (almost certainly at the maximum rate, regardless of the actual Product), and charge it to you on their Invoice; which you then must pay - obviously - before they will Ship your Purchase!

 

I believe Amazon do this and will refund you any excess Duty they charged you on their original Invoice once they have actually paid local Import Taxes - good luck getting a similar Refund for overpaid Duty from some one-off Seller on eBay.

 

Patrick

 

 

The duty still has to be paid, but the customs office collects it from shipper. It's done all the time. 

[bangon04]

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?

Doesn't seem to matter - they make it up if they feel like it.

I had a package of exhibition leaflets clearly marked No Commercial Value which were regularly intercepted and duty of 1600 Baht imposed. Sometimes I dump them, sometimes I need them.

[p_brownstone]

 

 

If you want to avoid paying duties, just insist people that ship to you specify “Deliver Duty Paid” (DDP) rather than CIF on the invoice.

 

 

How on earth will that help?!

 

If you "insist" that your Supplier Delivers "Duty Paid" - how can you possibly believe that that notation on any Shipping Document absolves you from Import Tax and therefore there is no Duty Payable?

 

Your Supplier will just calculate THEIR estimation of the Duty due (almost certainly at the maximum rate, regardless of the actual Product), and charge it to you on their Invoice; which you then must pay - obviously - before they will Ship your Purchase!

 

I believe Amazon do this and will refund you any excess Duty they charged you on their original Invoice once they have actually paid local Import Taxes - good luck getting a similar Refund for overpaid Duty from some one-off Seller on eBay.

 

Patrick

 

 

The duty still has to be paid, but the customs office collects it from shipper. It's done all the time. 

 

 

That's exactly my point - so how can you say that using this system an Importer can "avoid paying duties"?

 

Patrick

[Bpuumike]

Nice info. so I don't want to receive parcels from other countries when it is more than 1K baht.
 
I guess the Customs Officer didn't have any Christmas spirit at all.

Thais don't do Christmas except commercially.

[mogandave]

 

 

 

If you want to avoid paying duties, just insist people that ship to you specify “Deliver Duty Paid” (DDP) rather than CIF on the invoice.

 

 

How on earth will that help?!

 

If you "insist" that your Supplier Delivers "Duty Paid" - how can you possibly believe that that notation on any Shipping Document absolves you from Import Tax and therefore there is no Duty Payable?

 

Your Supplier will just calculate THEIR estimation of the Duty due (almost certainly at the maximum rate, regardless of the actual Product), and charge it to you on their Invoice; which you then must pay - obviously - before they will Ship your Purchase!

 

I believe Amazon do this and will refund you any excess Duty they charged you on their original Invoice once they have actually paid local Import Taxes - good luck getting a similar Refund for overpaid Duty from some one-off Seller on eBay.

 

Patrick

 

 

The duty still has to be paid, but the customs office collects it from shipper. It's done all the time. 

 

 

That's exactly my point - so how can you say that using this system an Importer can "avoid paying duties"?

 

Patrick

 

 

 

Well, I guess I missed your point, I thought we were talking about gifts. If you are receiving gifts, and they truly are gifts, why would the shipper not want to pay the duty?

 

And if they are gifts, what difference does the invoice price make?

 

Again, I don’t really care that people try to cheat the Thai people out of their tax revenue, I just think it funny that they when get caught, they get all indignant and act like it is somehow a stupid Thai civil-servant’s fault.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TCA]

I've sent stuff from the UK to Thailand twice in the past year, with a 50% success rate. The first was documents for my wife's visa, two hefty lever arch folders and these arrived successfully using Royal Mail International Signed For. We also sent birthday presents (clothing mostly) for her daughter by Royal Mail but didn't pay for tracking and/or signature and of course they disappeared never to be heard of again. I didn't realise I had to complete a customs form and I (wrongly) assumed the post office were doing something in this respect because they asked me the value of the goods each time. In hindsight I realise this was probably only for their insurance/compensation purposes. I was refunded the postage charges for the missing parcel incidentally.

 

We now have more birthday gifts to send (clothing again) and we're bang on the Royal Mail's 2kg limit for international packages and no doubt will go over by the time the stuff is packaged up. So it looks like the best solution is to send 2 separate packages (Royal Mail International Signed For) and complete 2 customs declarations which would individually be less than 1,000 baht each. It'll cost more to send but I'm put off by the bad posts about DHL and other similar services. They look expensive anyway.

 

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for posting alternatives from the UK?

 

 

 

[Baby Rabbit]

Hi,

I got the trouble from custom dept. I bought a leather tote bag from internet. That's pretty expensive around GBP1,000. 

Did u know how much import tax I have to pay? And I'm a visitor in Thailand. So do i have to pay VAT?

 

Thanks.

Baby Rabbit

[Gulfsailor]

13 minutes ago, Baby Rabbit said:

Hi,

I got the trouble from custom dept. I bought a leather tote bag from internet. That's pretty expensive around GBP1,000. 

Did u know how much import tax I have to pay? And I'm a visitor in Thailand. So do i have to pay VAT?

 

Thanks.

Baby Rabbit

Duties on the bag plus shipping is 20%. On top of it all 7% VAT. 

So for example 1000 gbp bag and 50 gbp shipping at 44thb/1gbp it comes to a total of Thb 13,121 in duties and VAT. 

[cmsally]

Sorry to dig up an old thread but it did look relevant. Does anyone have experience with customs when it comes to "returned mail" from abroad.

ie. the package started in Thailand , was sent abroad and was sent back to the senders address as no one at home to sign, post office screwed up delivery etc.

The last time this happened - my friend sent parcel back home using my address in Thailand as sender - it came back from France to Thailand ( I seem to remember no one at home in France to sign and postman didn't leave note).

Basically the post office wanted us to pay 4,000 Bt customs charge to release the box, then of course on top of that she would have to pay to resend back to France. So she gave up and we left the box there.

Now looking at the same situation as my friend in Australia sent 2 boxes back there when she was visiting us, and whilst one arrived, they have sent the other back to Thailand !

What exactly is the situation with charging duty on returned mail; basically we want to just put it back in the post and send it again. The box is from Thailand and has not been opened since Thailand !

[Media1]

On 20/11/2013 at 8:01 PM, yankee99 said:

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?

that's not there business to decide if it's a gift. They have no rights to say a box marked gift is not a gift. With no paperwork it's a gift. They act like criminals. LOL.

[blackcab]

1 hour ago, Media1 said:

They have no rights to say a box marked gift is not a gift.

 

They have every right, whether you like it or not.

[utalkin2me]

Very interesting topic.

 

It seems to sum up, send usps (from the states), declare a small value if that is your thing. 

 

I wonder if addressing it to a Thai name will help. I did not see that mentioned.