Best Posts in Thread: importing a laptop?

We did order some dog grooming stuff from Amazon; I think Amazon calculates the import fees already. You need to change your shipping address to Dumaguete City already. Here is an example quote:

 

For those people not buying from Amazon.

There are two types of tax during importation. Duty and VAT.

Duty is only charged on items that are also made here in the Philippines. For example there is no duty on computers.

VAT Value Added Tax 12% charged on everything over 10K PHP.

Customs has the following limits:

$10K PHP = $200 USD value of goods + shipping
No VAT tax no duty
de minimis too small or insignificant to be of importance.

50K PHP = 1,000 USD value of goods + shipping
Informal entry limit. Importation license not required.
Expect to pay VAT + Duty on value + shipping cost

Over 50K PHP Importation license required.
You can ask in writing for a waiver of this at the time of importation.
Expect to pay VAT + Duty on value + shipping cost

I doubt this applies to Amazon customers because Amazon will pay the VAT + duty taxes.

 

thanks everyone,

i ordered a laptop from amazon using amazon shipping.
Total Before Tax: $575.26
Import Fees Deposit: $120.81
Estimated Tax: $0.00
Order Total: $696.07

same item here is about $900 usd

i didn't know what the import fees were until i completed the order and received an order confirmation email from amazon.

ordered 25 feb
estimated delivery is 4 mar to 11 mar.

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clipped from:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201910710

You won't be charged additional fees if the actual Import Fees exceed the Import Fees Deposit we estimated. For items sold by Amazon Marketplace sellers, please check the seller's policies.

If the actual Import Fees are less than the Import Fees Deposit collected by us on your behalf, you'll automatically be refunded the difference to the payment method you used for the order

 

i ordered a netgear pocket wifi from lazada and had problems with it. i called netgear and they told me lazada is NOT an authorized netgear seller and i'm SOL

 

Yep. I imported one, paid duty (lots). Had to return it for warranty repair. When it came back, more duty (lots). No point in complaining or refusing to pay, it would just result in non-delivery.

Next time I'll just get a Thinkpad from Lazada.

 

In case anybody wants to look up the actual tariff rate for something - the whole catalogue is online at http://www.tariffcommission.gov.ph/tariff-book.

Also important:

- duty is calculated based on the total value of the shipment including the actual shipping cost
- there are various additional fees from the customs office and DHL/UPS for handling the process for you. Only once it happened to me that I got to deal with a customs officer myself, that was with a regular package that I had to pick up at the DGT post office.
- VAT (12%) is added on top of everything so you pay VAT on the goods plus duties

All this knowledge however won't help you much if they simply calculate your duties wrong. With a recent shipment I got via DHL someone messed up and started with a value of over USD 400 instead of the 249 stated on the included invoice. So I ended up paying a lot more than it should have been.

In this case I even got a call beforehand from DHL informing me of the amount to be paid upon delivery so I could have objected - but having no idea what the correct amount would be I just accepted the amount they said. I only noticed the error when examining the customs documentation. Customs fees (not the actual duty) in this case were PHP 730, DHL fees little over PHP 1000. Next time I'll at least ask what shipment value the calculation is based on to make sure that is correct.

 

the amazon shipping/customs deposit was generous and i DID receive a refund back to my credit card. sorry i don't remember the $ amounts