Duty-Free Household Shipment for Returning Thai National

[Rags]

My Thai wife and I will be returning to Thailand with our children after having been overseas together for the last 10 years. We are trying to understand the process for shipping our used household goods without paying customs duty, and have reviewed the following page on the Thai customs website:

 

http://en.customs.go.th/content.php?ini_content=individuals_151007_02&lang=en&left_menu=menu_individuals_151007_02

 

The rules appear to be quite clear, and as we are a returning family it suggests that under my wife's name we can for instance bring in 2 used TVs duty free, rather than the normal limit of 1 type of each used electrical item duty free.

 

However, knowing that things are never as simple as they appear in Thailand (TIT) - I wanted to ask whether anyone has recently gone through the process and has any advice on how best to approach it or pitfalls to avoid?

 

 

[glegolo]

You are entitled to import personal belongings into Thailand as being a thai national. But here is the "thing" with the customs here, and their so called laws and rules.....

 

The keyword is personal belongings, and WHAT is considered to be personal belongings... They, the customs, have limited the items that they consider to be personal belongings extremy much, so many people get tricked and tries to impiort stuff that is NOT personal belongings... The list is extremely narrow, so try to check it up via your forwarder.....

 

May I ask, from where are you coming from into Thailand...??? USA or Scandinavia???

 

Glegolo

Edited May 15, 2017 by glegolo

[Guest]

Ten years ago I paid lump sum of 10-20K for the company which was handling my import to Thailand. They made the problem go away.

[Rags]

Thanks glegolo

 

I am a British national and have been living in Dubai with my Thai wife for a number of years. 

 

We have lived in Thailand before so we know that rules in the country can change quickly.  Therefore keen to hear from anyone that has recently gone through the process. 

 

Rags

[Rags]

Anyone with experience of what sort of things customs officers might not consider to be 'personal' belongings...? 

[glegolo]

i.e. tools..

 

Glegolo

ps. didn´t you see the PM you got from me??

[PoorSucker]

Don't forget to bring a Mercedes.

[Eff1n2ret]

6 minutes ago, glegolo said:

i.e. tools..

 

It's getting on for 8 years since we made our move from the UK, but our shipment certainly included an assortment of hand and power tools (all heavily used), and customs didn't make any specific comments about those. My recollection of the process is that it was simply irritating and required at least one trip to Bangkok to submit documents that we had previously produced. The agents were downright unhelpful - some idiot in their office tried to make out that my wife hadn't been living abroad because they didn't understand that having acquired British citizenship a few years before there were no recent UK stamps in her Thai passport. We got over that, but I'm quite sure they were in league with customs. The deal I had with the UK shipper was everything paid - but there was still a demand for 5000Baht for no particular reason, accompanied by the threat that if this wasn't paid within 24 hrs our goods would start to incur storage charges. At the time that sum was no big deal in the context of moving house, but as I say, the residual feeling about the whole experience was just irritation. At least the goods subsequently arrived ok, with only a couple of minor breakages.