Sending valuables to China & import tax

[Ludens]

I'm planning to send 2 parcels from Europe to China with valuable contents: 1 parcel with a (40 year old) synthesizer and other (2 year old) electronic music instrument, with a total worth of 1500 euro. The second parcel will have some of my vinyl records, with a value of about 600 euro.

All of these products are mine and used, am I right in assuming there won't be any import tax to pay when receiving them in China? Is there anything I can do to ensure they won't be taxed? I don't have receipts of most of this stuff, as it's all bought second-hand. Sending this insured to China is already expensive enough, I don't want to be surprised by any extra costs.

I've searched through the forums but couldn't find a similar situation, any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

[jkhsu]

If you write 1500 euro on the customs form, you're almost certainly going to get taxed. What you can do is say they're old, used items worth much less and that they're gifts. You can still buy the shipping insurance at the actual cost to protect yourself. That won't affect what you put on the customs form.

[liuzhou]

All of these products are mine and used, am I right in assuming there won't be any import tax to pay when receiving them in China?

Not necessarily. It depends on what kind of mood the customs inspector is in.

I've had three cameras (DSLRs), several cell phones and other stuff float through customs unimpeded, but an old, very used videocam was held to ransom for no obvious reason.

It's fairly random.

And what you write on the customs note is irrelevant. 9 times out of ten they can't or won't read it anyway. They just open your package and decide how annoying to be. They know the true value and something being a gift does not in any way exempt it from import tax. That would be too easy.

[Ludens]

Thanks a lot for your replies, and sorry for replying quite late, I didn't have time to spend on the internet the last few days. I have some more questions that I hope you can help me with.

If they do decide to levy a tax, what kind of price would I be looking at? As said, the parcels will be secured for 1500 and 700 euro, but most of the contents will be 20+ year old instruments and records.

Also, I still have the original box the 2-year old instrument I'm sending came in. It would be very convenient and safe to put it back in it's original box, but I'm worried this might higher the chances of the entire parcel being taxed.

Any thoughts on what I should do? I'm getting pretty wound up about this, as I have no intention on paying a few thousand kuai to anyone to get my own stuff back.

[liuzhou]

If they do decide to levy a tax, what kind of price would I be looking at?

As I've already said it seems to be fairly random.

I had an old, used videocam, which I had accidentally forgotten to pack, sent out to me. They wanted ¥1200. We bargained that down to ¥600.

Less than a year later, it turned out that Sony recalled that model because of a defective part and were offering a free repair. But only in the UK. A friend was going back and agreed to take it and pass it on to Sony UK then post it back.

When it came back I got another bill, this time for ¥900. Must be deflation!

Fortunately, I was able to provide the receipt for the initial tax bill (complete with serial number etc) and so they capitulated.

It's random. Random if you get charged at all. And if they charge, the fee is random. It depends on how much they need for the next banquet.

[Ludens]

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience, Luizhou. If they can charge ¥1200 for an old videocam, I suppose there is a chance they'll charge ¥3000-¥6000 for my instruments, which is getting close to their market value.

This is really winding me up, I really don't know what to do. Would writing the purchase date + my name on the stuff help anything? Pictures of me using it in my home country? I suppose I know the answer, "it's fairly random".

If it really is this random, I wonder if it makes any difference where the package is headed; I'll be sending it to Beijing, I can image officials in some more out of the way place using the rules (if there are any) a bit more freely, so to speak.