Tax-free personal belongings carried by tourists now raised to 20,000 baht

[Tomtomtom69]

Is there a misunderstanding here or what? Usually the duties are only for travellers with goods that will end up in Thailand .e.g immigrants bringing personal belongings or thais returning from abroad.

Foreign tourists that plan to leave the country, that is goods are imported and then exported again, typically are exempt from these duties. So don't worry about your $10000 watch or handbag. As long as you're taking it home with you.

Not in Thailand. I looked into processing circuit boards for an American company which would involve programming cpus and calibrating sensors.

I would have to pay import duty on the full price of the PCB (even though I would not pay anything for them) and could not claim anything back when they were exported - even though the boards would never change ownership from the American company.

Sometimes we have to remember we are dealing with a developing country whose own industries don't go much further than farming and making stuff from concrete.

Which country would that be? Thailand is certainly a developing country but it produces much more than "farming" and "concrete".

Thailand is actually one of the world's top 10 or 12 car manufacturers, with around 2.5 million units produced in recent years and climbing. Hard disk drives, light electronics manufacturing, plastics, food processing (this is a big one), in fact most of the tuna you see on US supermarket shelves comes from Thailand are just some of the major export items made in Thailand.

I think where Thailand tries to rip you off is by taxing all consumer items brought in or purchased inside the country often at unreasonably high rates, due to a very ineffective personal income tax collection system, therefore it's much easier to generate income through the imposition of consumption taxes. That explains why cars, even those produced locally are so expensive (not to mention of course the rationale behind taxing foreign produced cars at much higher rates as a form of protectionism but that's not what we're debating here).

[Kannikapor88]

Who care what jibberish these people mumble about ... They are totally clueless

[Thian]

He said the increase of the value of tax-free personal belongings brought in will now be same as the value of things bought at duty-free shops by travellers at Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang airports before entering the country.

I don't get this part. I know the King Power also sells taxfree to travellers entering Thailand but do they sell so much taxfree to travellers coming to Thailand?

But i 'm happy with this new rule! Now i can bring much more quality machinery into Thailand straight from Europe.

Who needs new carparts?

Does this mean you can buy a older car for 20000 thai BHt pack into container and bring it into Thailand tax free.

Older cars are so cheap in NZ a 20000 Bht car would fetch up to 300000 Thai Bht in Thailand.

You would pay import duty on what it's value is in Thailand, not in New Zealand. I could have bought my 1000 dollar mini into Thailand, but they cost 800K baht here...and you would pay tax based on that value.

So if i bring a very rare antique clock (or whatever thing) which costs 100 euro and has a value of 1000 euro in thailand then i have to declare it and pay import duty? Even if i have a receipt from the store where i bought it abroad?

And for computers which cost more then 20k baht we also have to bring the receipts all the time? And if you bring a dog from 500 euro which has value of 1000 euro in thailand we also need to pay import duty?

Yes i know many thai lady's like to buy a louis vuiton abroad taxfree. So they also will have a problem now?