Most of you may be more experienced with these than I am myself. Sofar I only used them twice, once soon after my arrival here to get the things I couldn't live without over to the Philippines, and one more box a couple months later to send some "hard to find" items from Europe to my new home. I found the process slow, but the boxes arrived undamaged and unopened both times. I came across some news today regarding these boxes, a Senator asking the Customs Bureau to review their recent "rules change" that I didn't know about. The rules change requires the sender of a balikbayan box to include any and all receipts (on the outside of the box) for any new items inside. Apparently there are still concerns regarding abuse of the bb-box privelege by OFW's. Unhappy with the change of rules, OFW's approached the senator, who then asked the BoC to reconsider. The rules change in itself is obviously merely an additional burden and increases the risk of theft somewhere in the chain. Basically though, I wonder, are any of you concerned at all about a possible crackdown on foreigners residing in the Philippines using a privilege (and tax exemption) meant not for them but for OFW's?
I use Transtech and I have an extra box from last year but I'll get the recent one and read reviews before I send. Here are two screenshots of the comments and a photo of guidelines they posted on their facebook page: Q.#1 Do you really need my passport copy and receipts of items on the info sheets? Q.#2 "Do you need a copy of my Japanese passport or the dual citizenship certificate?"
When you have a Filipino spouse you can send the stuff to him/her to circumvent the new balikbayan import tax for foreigners.
Two remarks: There is no "new import tax" for foreigners. The privilege to send tax-free balikbayan boxes doesn't depend on the recipient but on the sender. If the sender isn't an OFW there is no legal base for sending a box under the balikbayan program.
