How and where to pay customs for an international import?

[Hal65]

I have a couple small electronics orders coming in from overseas. Neither seller withheld money for customs fees (I'm noting this because I saw this practice on Amazon). So I assume I'll have to pay out of pocket when the order is at customs.

Where do I go? Who do I pay?

Is there a way to streamline the process to avoid further delays?

Both orders are coming in through small international packages. I believe one is USPS Global mail, and the other one is something similar.

[robblok]

The postman will probably have a bill for you to pay a the post office if it attracts any tax. That is how it went when I had things that got taxed.

Couriers are a different story they collect themselves. Then you pay directly to DHL and so on.

[monsieurhappy]

In the past I have bought model airplanes and accessories from Hong Kong using both EMS and air parcel.

If customs have decided to charge me I have always paid the dues at the post office in Naklua on collection of the parcel.

Sometimes if the parcel has not been too big i have not been charged anything and even had these delivered by the postman.

Going back to when the airport was blockaded by the "Red Shirts" I had a large parcel ( model plane kit ) held up for about 6 weeks but did not pay any customs duty on it!

Some of my friends have had to go to Lam Chebang to collect large parcels.

Customs don't seem to have any hard and fast rules but seem to make things up as they go along!

[Hal65]

Good to know, I assume they send you a note in the mail telling you to go to the post office to pay and pick it up?

[guzzi850m2]

Good to know, I assume they send you a note in the mail telling you to go to the post office to pay and pick it up?

Yes.

When I order electronic stuff from Ebay the vendors sometimes send it as a gift and the import taxes are heavily reduced.

Eksample: GPS unit Garmin Zumo 350, bought in the US from Ebay at app 15.000 baht and send with FedEx and I paid 220baht at delivery because it was a "gift".

The real tax should have been something like 4500 baht, so happy enough.

So when I look for something I always try to find one of the top sellers on the item I am interested in and check how they ship it.

It's also worth noting that stuff sent via normal posting sometimes goes under the radar but with courier, never, you will always pay.

[boldface]

If the value of the item is on the outside of the box, you will get a pink card in your post box, and you will have to go to the post depot to get it (ours is usually in Naklua from the dark side) and if in Pattaya central I guess it will be the post office in Soi POst Office. You take the card upstairs, pay the dues, and then go to the collection place to get your parcel. If no value is on the outside of the box, if will be delivered as normal with no tax. To avoid in future, ask the person sending it to not put a value on the outside, or a value under $100 which has no tax.

[Smokin Joe]

I receive international mail regularly (in Naklua) and if customs is due, or undetermined, there are two different ways they deal with it.

If the customs amount has been determined I receive a slip notice in my mail to pick it up at the post office and pay the customs fee there.

If the amount, if any, is undetermined I get the same notice but it does not have any amounts listed and is mostly blank. In that case I have to go to the customs office in Laem Chabang and open the package in front of the inspectors and they will determine the amount to pay. I have almost always gotten off very light this way and only paid duty once out of about eight or nine times.

[Hal65]

Good to know, thanks. When opening the package, do they ever ask you what you paid? If so, what do you tell them?

[Smokin Joe]

Good to know, thanks. When opening the package, do they ever ask you what you paid? If so, what do you tell them?

No questions ever asked. They just looked at what was in the package and one time I was charged it was about 500 baht for a box that hard two hard drives and some forwarded mail.

[MTH]

If the value of the item is on the outside of the box, you will get a pink card in your post box, and you will have to go to the post depot to get it (ours is usually in Naklua from the dark side) and if in Pattaya central I guess it will be the post office in Soi POst Office. You take the card upstairs, pay the dues, and then go to the collection place to get your parcel. If no value is on the outside of the box, if will be delivered as normal with no tax. To avoid in future, ask the person sending it to not put a value on the outside, or a value under $100 which has no tax.

I’ve paid tax quite a few time on shipments with a declared value including postage, of around 12-1500 baht, so just anything valued below $100 don’t seem to be tax-free.

Whenever I have friends ship me stuff, I ask them to declare it as a gift, or a value around $20-30, and so far those shipments have slipped through customs. But this isn’t usually possible when ordering online.

I don’t think the post office on Soi Post Office deal with pickups, you either have to go to Naklua or the Jomtien post office on Sukhumvit depending on where you live in town. Where you can pick up your package is always written on the pink card you mentioned, but only in Thai IIRC.

And sometimes, as Smoking Joe says, when the taxed amount hasn’t been decided, you have to pick it up in Laem Chabang. Been there a few times too.

[Hal65]

I just looked up Laem Chabang. Oh god. What public transport options are available to get there and back to Central Pattaya?

[balo]

I order a lot of stuff from Ebay and been lucky so far , no taxes to pay. Last item I bought was an Olympus camera and was prepared to pay tax on it but it just arrived without any fees to pay.

[BB1950]

I just looked up Laem Chabang. Oh god. What public transport options are available to get there and back to Central Pattaya?

Bus, Baht Bus, and Mini Van that run along Sukhumvit.

If you can't read Thai, speak Thai, or never done it before. I suggest you take a Thai with you.

Take your passport with you too!

[fforest1]

If you do not want to pay customs NEVER ship FedX,DHL, I would also be wary of UPS.

USPS and EMS are the shippers to use.

The Ebay and Amazon Global Shipping program is a huge rip off...This program is not doing

you any favors it only lining the shippers pockets...If a shipper will not ship regular mail

screw them I will not buy from them unless I must have something....

[jaywalker]

Twice had some Sri Lankan heartburn medicine (Protonix) shipped to Pattaya.

Total order was for me & my neighbor. Both times it was a year's supply for each of us & about 10,000 Baht.

We once had to make a mad dash to Laem Chabang......We had no idea where the office was at. We started off at the Naklua post office about 1:00 PM on a Friday.

We'd gotten the notice late & were worried the package would be returned.

Saw a DHL office on that side road between Laem Chabang & HWY 7, so we figured for sure they'd know where the customs office was.

I speak passable Thai, and THEY HAD NO CLUE! One of their Thai customers in the parking lot gave me directions!!!

We somehow found it. Take that side road/cut-off to Laem Chabang, turn left on Sukhumvit back towards Pattaya, go a mile or two & you'll go over a large overpass/flyover. On your left will be a BIG-ASS multi-story shopping mall...can't miss it.

Take the first left after the overpass & go under it back towards the coast.

You'll see a sign for the customs office on the left.

Take your passport & a couple copies of it. They had a copy service/shack near the parking lot when I went.

Everyone was very nice. I explained it was stomach medicine in my broken Thai.

The customs officer, bless his heart, turned around and typed something into his computer, and his computer speakers said, in rather loud volume, in English, 720 baht.

"Kow jai khap. Mai pen lai."

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The other time it arrived in my neighbor's mailbox. Go figure...

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As for public transport to get there, I'd try those white baht buses that ply Sukhumvit, get to the shopping mall & grab a moto-taxi. Just show the moto-dop your customs form & he'll most likely know exactly where to go....errr.... You might have to show it to 4 or 5 of them.......

[johng]

Going back to when the airport was blockaded by the "Red Shirts" I had a large parcel ( model plane kit ) held up for about 6 weeks but did not pay any customs duty on it!

The airport wasn't blockaded by the "Red Shirts"

[Hal65]

I have a large monitor coming in from South Korea, it cost $600 but I'm not sure if the price is given on the outside. It's coming via DHL or FedEx so its likely to be picked up by customs especially since it's a 40 inch. Anyone have an idea what the customs charge will be?

[mlmcleod]

Hello all!

 

Does anyone know the address of Laem Chabang?  I have GPS but I need a good address to find it.  No success on Google or the local post office!

 

[sandgroper2]

You call yourself bahtboy, why didnt you  take a baht bus instead of riding your bike. There is more to this than meets the eye!

[NanLaew]

4 hours ago, bahtboy said:

 

I had to pick up a package from Laem Chabang Customs office and I went on Monday on my bicycle from Jomtien. The office in my condo block had given me an address which I put into Google Maps and printed off the result. When I arrived at Laem Chabang, the directions proved to be totally incorrect and took me many miles out of my way. I think Maps was out of date. However, I found a helpful Thai guy outside his shop and finally found my way.

Actually, coming from Pattaya it's very easy to find the Customs office at Laem Chabang. If you take the Sukhumvit Road, carry on to Laem Chabang until you see an overpass which takes the road straight on. Harbor Mall will be on the right hand side. Don't take the overpass but steer left and there are traffic lights about 100 yards further on under the overpass. Turn left at the lights. Follow the road for about a mile and you will come to an intersection with what looks like check points for entry to the port ahead. Turn left here and the Customs office is immediately on the left. Big entrance, big signage.

I wish I had known this info before I set out as I checked my distance travelled when I got back and it was 71km. If I hadn't been misled by Google Maps, I guess it would have been about 55 km. from Jomtien and back.

 

Here's a couple of screen grabs to go along with bahtboy's rather good instructions. The first shows the  route from the Highway 3 turn off (under the flyover) to the front gates.

 

... and the second shows the magnificent Customs building itself (with my new Porsche just being delivered).

 

If you insist on GPS, it is 13° 4'26.85"N 100°54'31.68"E