Customs declaration when sending clothes

[Guest Tommy1]

Hi all,

 

New member here ... first week in Melbourne !

 

I have a couple of boxes of clothes and shoes (approx 20kg each) that I want to send from the UK via FedEx. I have to complete a commercial invoice which lists the contents of the box. Does anybody know if I have to list every item individually or if I can just state "clothes and shoes" as the contents ? Also, I understand that if I value the box at over $1000AUD then I have to pay GST and duty on it !

 

Does anybody have any experience or advice on how to complete this form to easily get through customs ?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Tom

[Metoo]

Need more info to give a better answer, are these your clothes, are you emigrating (ie your clothes) are they used etc

If they are yours and are used, and you are sending them instead of say, paying excess baggage on your flight, you could put... personal clothing for personal use, no commercial value and a token value.

See if anyone else can comment on this.

[Guest Tommy1]

Thanks for the reply.

 

Yes they are our clothes and yes they are used. We are already in Melbourne, maxed out our baggage allowance when we flew over and have a couple of boxes of our used clothes back in the UK that we need to send over.

 

I understand that I will be charged GST if I declare it over $1000AUD, do I need to list every item in the box or can I just list 'personal clothing' on the commercial invoice ?

[Guest siamsusie]

Thanks for the reply.

 

Yes they are our clothes and yes they are used. We are already in Melbourne, maxed out our baggage allowance when we flew over and have a couple of boxes of our used clothes back in the UK that we need to send over.

 

I understand that I will be charged GST if I declare it over $1000AUD, do I need to list every item in the box or can I just list 'personal clothing' on the commercial invoice ?

 

Hi Tommy, I would give your agent i.e. Fed Ex a copy of your Visa for Australia which then shows Customs you are a new migrant. I have always sent items through this route and I havent individually listed the clothing , just made a guess 'tamet on value i.e. $500 and list as used clothing for personal use.

 

Best wishes Susie

[Guest]

There is exemption when you emigrate, I don't know the details but when you ship a container there's no import duty or GST on goods over 12 months old.

 

We sent a couple of boxes by air freight and some of that was new, leaving presents and Christmas presents which I declared when we went to collect the boxes from the freight forwarders at the airport and went to clear customs the guy looked at the stuff listed as new and asked were they gifts and when I said yes there was no charge.

 

It's pretty important you sort this as it isn't just GST to pay, footwear for example has a 15% duty plus 10% GST so with the cost of getting it here you could end up out of pocket.

 

It might be best to contact customs, I'm sured they'd be helpful. You risk getting well meant but inaccurate info here from people like me! We were still in the UK when our stuff was sent and I don't know if that makes a difference.

 

Jules

[desreb]

I know it's after the event, but to add to this.

 

Fedex prohibit shipping of any personal effects, apparently due to the hassle of customs clearance. They say they'll reject any shipments listed as personal effects at pickup. If you somehow hoodwink them into taking the shipment, and Aus customs stop it, then Fedex will either request that you attend the airport to clear the shipment yourselves, or they may do it it automatically for a fixed AUD99 fee.

 

We took some other advice, which is a bit riskier; we listed the shipment as a 'gift' of 'Second Hand Clothes' worth AUD100 (apparently GST threshold is on the goods PLUS shipping costs). However - it seemed to work: the 3 cases (we used old suitcases obtained on Freecycle locally, despite this looking a bit suspect as a 'commercial shipment') cleared customs in 12 hours, and arrived the same day as they cleared.

 

Of course, if they'd gone missing, we'd have received £60 compensation; not much for all our clothes. We also had to be sure to ship ONLY clothes - no cables, bits and bobs, etc.

 

Total cost: AUD250 for 3 large suitcases totaling 45kg, and they arrived before we'd used up the clothes we'd taken in our suitcases; saved us the hassle of lugging them around, and cost less than half as

much as excess baggage.

 

 

D