What is the cut-off time period for importing personal effects?

[Mopoke]

To import goods under the tariff code for personal effects, you must be arriving from a place outside Australia, and the goods must be your personal property that you owned while overseas. The detail is on the Agriculture department but interestingly the links don't work to home affairs. We were wondering how many months/years we had to ship our possessions before the Australian Government no longer classes them as "unaccompanied personal effects" and slaps import and GST on your belongings. Interestingly, the UK shipper said two years, the Australian partner said one year and another UK shipping company said 4 months. I asked each for a link to an Australian Government link showing the amount of time you have to ship your belongings - e.g. live in NSW for a bit and then once you have a proper address, ship your stuff.

Noone had a link to this time period. I tried an email to Home Affairs and got no reply. Does anybody have a link on an Australian Government website that spells out the time you have to ship your possessions?

 

[Mopoke]

I'm a tiny bit surprised no-one has come across this. Does everyone simply ship at the same time, even without a place to move into?

[Nemesis]

2 hours ago, Mopoke said:

I'm a tiny bit surprised no-one has come across this. Does everyone simply ship at the same time, even without a place to move into?

I've never even heard that there is a timescale. As long as the goods are your own, and not new bought  to import of course. I left loads of stuff in the UK, didn't move it for about 7 year after I got PR and  just declared it as personal possessions, no questions asked, no taxes

[Amber Snowball]

3 hours ago, Mopoke said:

I'm a tiny bit surprised no-one has come across this. Does everyone simply ship at the same time, even without a place to move into?

I did. The shipping takes a while so was moved in before the container arrived. I would imagine this is what most people do. Could you ship when you fly and then put your stuff in storage if you don’t need it immediately? No idea on timescales for GST/import taxes I’m afraid.

[Mopoke]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, AS we are going to use Sydney storage but there is always the point that the best storage is your own house in the UK [if you haven't rented to sold]. That's why we're exploring it as one of so many options. Interesting point Nemesis as both the UK and Oz shipping companies have said there definitely is a limit - they just didn't know what it was. I may trying calling Border Force - does anybody have any recommendations for a decent number as their website seems bereft of emails and it would be great to avoid the departmental runaround.

[mfenner269]

Hi

just wondering if you’d managed to find any more info on this subject?

i moved to Perth 3 years ago on PR but left some stuff at my parents in UK as I didn’t know what my permanent circumstances would be. I now have a few old bits of memorabilia - cds, DVD’s, photos etc, plus a bike and electronic drum kit that I wanted to ship now that I have a place to store them. The drum kit was purchased about 8 years ago in the UK for £3k. If there is a time limit for claiming as personal effects and assuming I’m well past that limit, how would they calculate the tax due? I wonder/hope they’d depreciate it and then calculate. DoHA are pretty inconclusive and just say it will be assessed on its own merit.

Any advice greatly appreciated 

Thanks. Matt