Importing personal effects

[dhream]

I have one aircraft dimension pallet of personal effects, clothing, Hifi kit, quality cookware etc, documents. Tools.

I do my own freight consigning whenever i move overseas. it's easy, and cheap compared to what agents charge.

But

Is there anything I need to know about how they will tax these items?

Do I need an itemised List?

What sort of costs are realistic, any bribery Nonsense?

I'm already retired and well estabilised here 2 years.

Thanks all.

[Aussie69]

I am also interested to know this

[LivinLOS]

Law says a returning Thai can be 'tax free'.. I believe the law says some classes of farang are also tax free..

Whatever the law says.. Once they have your stuff, they make the rules.. I shipped 3 pallets to Phuket 15 years ago.. It was in my wifes name and she had been outside Thailand >5 years, all by the book tax free.. But then they just made new reasons, ransomed it back.. It did get a bit ugly.. I arrived to find my (expensive.. 10k projector, big buck amps and the like) stuff all spread around an unsecured area with people walking in and out, anything could have been nicked (but wasnt).. As the negotiations went on, they eyed my 7500 usd worth of marble speakers and said 'maybe we need to crack those open to see what was inside'..

In the end it wasnt a huge cost, I managed to get the boss alone at lunch break, so it didnt need sharing with the underlings, and I think it was 15k bribe no receipt, down from around 50 IIRC.. It was the 'welcome to Thailand' issue that was worse..

A good agent will make that problem feel easier, but probably cost more doing it legit than the bribe does.. A really good agent might even be cheaper

Edited December 29, 2015 by LivinLOS

[Langsuan Man]

If it makes you feel any better my cost was 80,000 THB import duty with a receipt and 40,000 THB for no receipt and many items in the shipment had been purchased here in Thailand, shipped to Germany and then returned, made no difference since the Royal Thai Customs agent handling the shipment sets the price

Needless to say I chose the no receipt option and where they really have you by the short hairs is that your shipment is held in a bonded customs warehouse which is really expensive on a daily basis while you argue the duty assessment so most just pay and cut their losses

But you will probably find an equal number here at TV that have paid nothing for the importation of personal effects so it is basically a crap shoot as to which agent is assigned to your shipment

[Greenside]

Depends where you are shipping from I'm sure, but I had a good experience with SevenSeas who handle expat personal effects from anywhere to anywhere as far as I can see. I shipped a 6m³ packing case from Devon in the UK to CM and the cost was around 70,000 baht door to door. The customs will hit you as hard as they can for anything electrical or luxury sounding/looking - a full inventory is essential but consolidate into boxes to avoid what nearly happened to me. The consignment arrived in BKK where customs billed me for 321 baht per listed item - no matter if it was a leather reclining sofa, a box of kitchen gear or a bicycle lock!

The shipping agent argued and although they could come up with no justification it looked like they were going to hold out for 18,000 duty. The agent was super helpful and made such a nuisance of himself over a period of about 6 weeks (no "over a barrel" storage ransom, btw) that they finally saw sense and reduced it to a more reasonable 2600 baht. No bribes asked for or offered.

Seven Seas were astoundingly well organised at the pickup end and I'd definitely use them again.

Edited December 29, 2015 by Greenside

[pgrahmm]

One 42' container.....Everything cleared @ n/c ..... Probably because they ended up with my car !

Don't even try and bring in ANY vehicle.....

They did require an itemized list....Which I organized by rooms → numbered boxes with itemized descriptions per box.....

Edited December 29, 2015 by pgrahmm

[dhream]

Thanks all for the info thus far. As I said, I've done this from SYD-SIN,SIN-GLA (UK) and GLA-LIS. now its to be LIS (EU) CNX. My biggest cost ever was the truck from my Sydney home to that freight Depot! And I got a discount, they were rubbish at it too, didn't send the right equipments ancient had to help or risk my stuff being damaged, but apart from that, it's worked brilliantly everywhere, you buy the pallets and wrap online, call a commercial shipping company, have them email the waybiill, fill it out (they select a flight Option) make a list of contents, hire a truck at either end. Visit customs to collect. Done.

[dhream]

I also tried sea shipping from the UK to NZ in the bad old pre internet days (it would have been too time consuming to DIY then, just as we once all needed travel agents) anyhow, it cost in the end, more than the stuff was worth, and seawater had entered, and destroyed some items too. And it took absolutely months, about nine, they must have even lost it somewhere. Also, airfreight, at commercial tarriff now, is nothing close to what you pay for a single extra suitcase, that's a deliberate penalty to keep people from abusing the system, you see the punters don't understand aircraft are weight restricted for many good reasons. If these Steep baggage costs were not in place, check-in and hold cargo loading would be a logistics nightmare.

[HullyGully]

With respect to shipping goods to Thailand.

You should start by stating "ALL GOODS ARE USED PERSONAL EFFECTS & ARE OVER 2 YEARS OLD"

You should have an itemised priced list, however you can limited that saying I lot of books for example

It you wish, you could also keep the prices on the low side

This would keep duties lower, duties normally are cost of goods, transport & packing plus VAT

Its also better to have a good agent in BKK, to clear the goods quickly, you can incur storage costs if you do not CC quickly

[dhream]

Depends where you are shipping from I'm sure, but I had a good experience with SevenSeas who handle expat personal effects from anywhere to anywhere as far as I can see. I shipped a 6m³ packing case from Devon in the UK to CM and the cost was around 70,000 baht door to door. The customs will hit you as hard as they can for anything electrical or luxury sounding/looking - a full inventory is essential but consolidate into boxes to avoid what nearly happened to me. The consignment arrived in BKK where customs billed me for 321 baht per listed item - no matter if it was a leather reclining sofa, a box of kitchen gear or a bicycle lock!

The shipping agent argued and although they could come up with no justification it looked like they were going to hold out for 18,000 duty. The agent was super helpful and made such a nuisance of himself over a period of about 6 weeks (no "over a barrel" storage ransom, btw) that they finally saw sense and reduced it to a more reasonable 2600 baht. No bribes asked for or offered.

Seven Seas were astoundingly well organised at the pickup end and I'd definitely use them again.

Hi there Greenside, I have had your Google map of CNX since I arrived in Feb 2014 excellent Work! THANKS.

[anto]

I brought half a container here from Ireland by ship .I had a retirement visa already for over a year .I used a shipping agent who organised everything .I only paid B3000 in taxes which was a great relief.Doing it yourself may end up expensive in the long run .

[Nigeone]

I actually had a good experience and shipped 25 items,boxes and crated pictures etc from UK to Lamphun and no charge on entry. Shipped in wife's name and she was in the country etc. A full list by box was included however I have a feeling a cost was included in the original shipping quote to cover the bribes. A second much smaller consignment of approx 9 items and a coup,e of these been quite big were shipped but because wife had been out of the country we had to pay 2000 baht.which I was happy to do..Both consignments included electrical goods including a lot of big workshop type joiners tools. They were sent through a local firm where I live via a international firm in Liverpool and took about 8 weeks door to door. The firm gather different peoples items together then fill a container and it went by sea..I would recommend it for service and price..

[Nigeone]

With respect to shipping goods to Thailand.

You should start by stating "ALL GOODS ARE USED PERSONAL EFFECTS & ARE OVER 2 YEARS OLD"

You should have an itemised priced list, however you can limited that saying I lot of books for example

It you wish, you could also keep the prices on the low side

This would keep duties lower, duties normally are cost of goods, transport & packing plus VAT

Its also better to have a good agent in BKK, to clear the goods quickly, you can incur storage costs if you do not CC quickly

This is all good advice also....incidentally my stuff was sent a couple of years ago now so don't know if it's changed a bit more recently..tripping to get some of it back now ! But that's another story

[Lampang2]

If you don't have a receiving agent in Thailand to help you administer the bribe process you will have a major headache.

[Konini]

I also tried sea shipping from the UK to NZ in the bad old pre internet days (it would have been too time consuming to DIY then, just as we once all needed travel agents) anyhow, it cost in the end, more than the stuff was worth, and seawater had entered, and destroyed some items too.

Nothing to do with moving stuff here, but 30 years ago we shipped everything apart from furniture and pots and pans from UK to NZ and less than 2 years later pretty much the same stuff on to Australia. From Wellington to Melbourne cost more and took 10 weeks as opposed to 8 weeks for it going literally half way around the world.

I was told it was the most expensive shipping lane in the world.

[HullyGully]

Shipping from the UK is around 4 weeks, many vessel come via Singapore

Door to Door is around 6 to 8 weeks

Whoever ships the goods, get their respect agent details in Bangkok

Shipping Company phone / email

CC agent phone / email

Also a name if possible

Also shop around for a quote