Dobbers84

I’m headed to Thailand next month and I am bringing some parts for my motorcycle with me. This is a bike I keep at a friends in Thailand. I have grown tired of renting a bike so I bought one. Anyway should I declare the parts or should I take my chances and go to the green lime???thoghts?

CrazyInteg

Thai Customs

Often1

Whether the items are dutiable is not the question. The sole question for OP is whether he ought to declare them. The answer to that is, yes.

IluvSQ

Always declare. If in doubt, declare.

timster

That very small figure of 20k baht (combined) would apply to many peoples' general travel luggage .... eg laptop, camera, tablet, phones, etc. Obviously they don't declare them. I suspect that everyone including authorities know that that figure is not always applied.

To my mind whether to declare would depend on size, how packed, how obvious that goods are for personal use rather than sale, how expensive they look, etc.

Thai customs have a reputation for imposing unreasonable duties, although those reports are based on people shipping stuff in. I have not heard of that happening at BKK because I've never heard of anyone declaring small stuff carried in by air and packed in with personal luggage.

The guys on the green line appear to be looking for people with big boxes of commercial quantities. I have never seen a farang's regular travel luggage stopped for scanning in the green line.

Diplomatico

Timster is spot on, IMO.

If your moto parts are small and fit into a "normal" amount of personal luggage then I'd just keep on walking. If you have obviously and unnaturally large amounts of luggage that exceed what the average traveler might carry - or several large boxes - then I'd suggest declaring your goods.

Dr. HFH

In the couple of hundred entries I have made at BKK, I have always used the green lane; and my bags were x-rayed exactly once. OTOH, if that once happens to find your stuff, you could be subject to a harsh penalty. What's more, if they perceive (or claim to) a possible sinister purpose in anything you have, they could take the view that you are a smuggler, or worse. IMO it's not worth it. You want to avoid the Thai legal system if you can.

Oldtiger

As has been indicated by several previous contributors already, you are best to declare the parts on arrival and pay the import duty (which may unfortunately be fairly expensive).
Please be mindful that as per normal procedures at most international airport, arriving checked in luggage at BKK is subject to being x-rayed and/or sniffed by a customs dog before to being loaded onto the collection carousels, so any motorcycle parts in your luggage are going to show up on x-ray and your bag will be ‘marked’ for physical inspection as you pass through customs control.If you then go through the nothing to declare channel and get stopped, and customs find the parts in your bag, they (customs) are going to think that you are attempting to evade paying duty and are likely to throw the ‘book at you’. That will almost certainly result in the parts being confiscated plus a heavy fine. There is also a possibility of you being deported plus a ban from entering the Kingdom for the foreseeable future.Quote from Thai Customs Allowances.
The duty free allowance will be applied to accompanied personal effects up to Bath 20,000 worth if i) the items are intended for your own personal or professional uses; ii) the quantity are reasonable; and iii) the items are not subject to prohibition or restriction.However, there are limits on the amount of alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, cigars and smoking tobacco to which you may include in your duty free personal exemption as follows:

1. 200 cigarettes or 250 grams of cigars or smoking tobacco; and
2. 1 litre of alcoholic beverages.

PaxALotl

Absolutely do not declare, if the following are true:

- you are on a tourist/ordinary visa (i.e. non resident)
- you can walk through customs and appear to be an ordinary farang with ordinary luggage
- you are carrying parts, but most of your luggage has ordinary personal items, i.e. no suitcase full of parts

If this is the case, there is a very high chance you'll just walk through and if you get caught there's a very high chance you can simply play dumb and pay the fine and go. The military has really cleaned up the BS at customs over the last couple of years, so you can still pay some extra 'fines' here and there to move through quickly, but it's very rare to be detained all day, fleeced, or otherwise screwed over for bringing something in, other than drugs or cash!

Dobbers84

Diplomatico

I would bring receipts but would not produce them unless you were stopped (unlikely) and the Thai customs officials attempted to "overvalue" the cost of the goods that you have in your possession.

Unlike another poster has stated, you're not going to be thrown in prison or banned from Thailand unless you're trying to bring in a Mercedes S class cut up into parts and stowed in your luggage.

If, in the unlikely event, you are stopped you would plead ignorance and ask what is cost of the import tax. That's when I would produce receipts. It depends upon the goods but, based upon what I pay for imported goods in Thailand, a rule of thumb is 30% plus 7% VAT (which is levied upon the 30% import tax, if I'm not mistaken.) So you're looking at about 40% total. You might also have to pay a "fee" to grease the skids.

Roll the dice. I've never been stopped going through BKK and that's based upon over 50 entrances. Up to you, as they say.

Annalisa12

Under what category?

Oldtiger

Obviously, as someone who has been through BKK over 50 times you are an expert. However, there does appear to be a slight lack of understanding on certain matters relating to Thai Customs, so please allow me to enlighten you on a few things.

Firstly, in the event that the OP gets stopped by Thai Customs at BKK when going through the nothing to declare channel (however unlikely that may be) and them finding motorcycle parts in his luggage, the OP pleading ignorance is no defence.

Everyone who ever gets stopped by Customsr the world over with more than they should have, or shouldn't have, exclaim with shock, I didn't know that.

Also I wonder why Thai Customs on their website - on the section dealing with allowances specifically states ... That personal affects do not include motor vehicle parts, regardless of the length of time used or owned. ????

Secondly, producing a receipt to the Customs officer to show the value of the parts will be of little or no use. In fact it could have a detrimental affect.

Customs officers the world over are well aware that it very easy to obtain a receipt from a vendor showing the value of the goods as being far less than the true value. Regardless of the items being new or used, Customs officers will always use the 'book value as new' when calculating duty payable. If the item does not appear on their very comprehensive database, they will make an estimate which is more often than not considerably higher than the true value.

As I mentioned earlier, showing the receipts could in fact have a detrimental affect. From the Customs officer perspective, why would the OP be carrying the receipts? The officer may well suspect that the OP knew exactly what he was doing in not declaring the items and had the reciepts to show the officer (should he be stopped) in case the officer tried to overcharge him, or that he was going to sell them, on which would be even worse.

Thirdly, the import duty on motorcycle parts is not 30% plus 7% VAT as you have indicated.

The duty that will be imposed on motorcycle parts will be based upon the as new value of the parts and comprises the following: Import Duty @ 60%, plus any Surcharge/Special Duty, plus a Transaction Fee, plus Excise Tax @ 3% of the value of the parts, plus Interior Tax @ 10% of the Excise Tax. Once all that has been added up they then slap on a further 7% VAT on the value of the items plus all the taxes. So at the end of the day the duty could well end up to be nearer 80% of the as new book value.

Fourthly, as for "greasing the skids" the OP will need a fairly large brown envelope. Thai Customs officers receive a percentage of the duty that they recover as a bonus on their salaries, so the OP will have to match or better the 'commission'.

Fifthly, the above all assumes that the Customs officer allows the OP to retain the items which he didn't declare. As I mentioned in my previous post, Customs can confiscate the items and fine the OP for not declaring the items. The fine for evading duty can be up to 300% the value of the goods.

Obviously a bit of common sense is needed. If there are only a few parts are they are small the chances of them being picked up by the arrival baggage x-ray is fairly low and hence the risk of being stopped are going to be slim. However, if the parts are largish (like pistons, a crank case or a carburettor etc.) then such item may well show up on the x-ray and the bag be tagged for inspection, so declaring may be the better option than facing the possibility of a lot of hassle.

I just wonder why the OP would need top bring parts into Thailand as they can in most cases be reality available here at reasonable prices.

Diplomatico

My point exactly. Thanks for reaffirming it.

Dr. HFH

It all depends on how risk averse you are. Don't let your decision be made solely by the fact that the chances of being discovered are probably quite low. You also need to look at the likely consequences if you are discovered.