% Duty on the Import by post into Philippines

Anybody know what this rate is, if applied.....

Thanks.

Okay. We have a second hand iPhone with a 2nd hand value of about £150 to £200 that we plan to send to the Philippines by secure, insured and trackable carrier. The postage cost will be about £40 plus £14.0 for insurance providing it is in its original packaging.

If picked out by Philippine customs what is the likely duty / tax that it will incur?

Your package will undoubtedly be examined by Philippine Customs at the clearance facility at NAIA. The fact that you declare it as 'second hand' may or may not be taken into account, Customs will go by their 'bible'. Your consignee may have to pay 40 - 50% in duty and VAT based on the valuation that Customs place on it and that amount has to be paid before the courier company can deliver it. Your consignee may also have to pay storage charges if they can not react quickly enough to the text message advising them of the package's arrival and the total duty payable.

Bear in mind that you may not be permitted to send a battery with the phone - DHL made me remove the battery from a phone I sent to the Philippines a few years ago.

I would recommend using FedEx and not DHL for packages to the Philippines.

Incidentally I have heard of problems related to trying to use phones tied to certain UK networks with local SIM cards, more so with those used on Orange or 3 but no problems with those used on T-Mobile.


JohnAsh won't see this answer as he has decided to ignore all my posts; however my answer may be of use to others facing a similar problem in future.

The phone is unlocked. If an iPhone is bought from Apple here, then it comes unlocked.

iPhone batteries are integral to the phone.

If the import duty / charges are potentially that much then we will have to go for plan B or something.

Looked into this today. The "importer" would have to fill out an NTC form for a permit or a financial penalty may well be applied.

http://www.ntc.gov.ph/


I foresee the implementation of Plan B ahead.

Huh??? Someone's pulling your chain!

First I've heard about that. I and many Expats I know have sent secondhand phones to private individuals here in the Philippines without any problem. As I said in my earlier reply, some express courier companies will not permit a battery to be installed in a phone that is a private shipment. When I sent a phone, admittedly a few years ago, the DHL collection guy required to see the phone actually operate and then told me to remove the battery, tape the terminals and wrap it tightly in several layers of foil which was then secured with tape. So you may have a problem with an iPhone if the battery can not be removed. And although import duty and VAT can be charged, my recipient was very lucky in that she didn't have to pay more than 400 Pesos in total - even though a much higher rate could have been charged.

No chain pulling. It is down to the courier. But here we tend to be limited to using an IoM carrier to get the item off the island, before it gets passed on to someone else. They quoted, by email to me, from their literature, which covers the entire journey, to its destination.

They don't appear to have a problem with the iPhone battery though.

I gather that if there are charges upon arrival in the Philippines, a lot depends on the value of the item as to the amount. So a cheaper phone will incur less charges etc etc.

Ach, can't be doing with that. Next time you're in the UK, pop into a FedEx agent and get them to take it. Or take it to a post office and send it by Special Delivery -- only they don't call it that for international packages, EMS may be the correct term.

Just like any other country, import duties/taxes depend on the value of the goods and the product type. There is an import duty calculator here...

http://www.dutycalculator.com/help_center/Import-duty-taxes-when-importing-into-Philippines/

You are right about DHL and batteries. The real problem for DHL are Li-Ion batteries. Sony had a very large batch (sold to several manufacturers) which were prone to catching fire from internal shorting due to faulty manufacture.

DHL require that all Li-Ion batteries be removed from the device (unless un-removable). I think they also require that Li-Ion should be shipped in a completely discharged state, which prevents internal shorting, from a badly manufactured battery and external shorting for batteries removed from the device and stored separately.

You have not said what plan 'B' is!

You can always send in a balikbayan box. No problems with Li-Ion batteries in Balikbayan boxes and no problem with taxes/import duty either. Your individual box will not be scanned by customs, though the entire shipping container probably will be. But that scanning is really looking for guns, drugs etc.

I just sent a balikbayan box yesterday, containing a Nexus 7 tablet, which I conveniently did not declare as the value of the remaining items were near the limit (£200) for the size of box I was sending. I don't envisage any problems with customs, though boxes can always be lost in transit and the carrier does not insure for losses caused by ships lost at sea.

The Nexus 7 also has an un-removable battery. I sent it in a semi-discharged state as I don't think Li-Ion batteries like to be fully discharged for too long.

Thanks.

I found this a bit confusing :

Thanks for the info on Balikbayan boxes. We have found an agent locally so might actually get round to sending one.

Plan B is to send some money out for her mom to buy new smartphone.

Sending money is probably the best way. Quicker, simpler. cheaper. For someone disabled, like me, taping up a Balikbayan box is hard work!

There are some very good Chinese-branded smartphones these days and I guess they can be purchased in the Philippines. You just have to be very careful what you buy as the Chinese copy everything! So, you can get a decent Chinese-own branded item or an awful clone of the very same item!

I just bought some items from China. Like many Chinese websites, they massively undeclare the value of items so I did not have to pay import duties into the UK. Not sure if that trick works on goods imported into the Philippines though!

My wife used to have a Chinese iphone. Yes, I know they are all made in China, but hers was a fake.

iPhone may well be made in China but it was developed in the west. Everyone knows that the Chinese copies western products but they don't realise the Chinese produce fake copies of home-grown products. Just bear that in mind when you buy from Amazon marketplace as it can be difficult to prove what you have bought is fake if the genuine product is not generally available through UK retailers.

Just make sure you always pay by credit card (not debit card or Paypal) as you then have rights under S.75 of the Consumer Protection Act against your card provider.

I believe the Chinese even make fake iPhones with Android operating systems!

Thats what my wife called hers.



In our case it is a used version of the iPhone 4 ( superceded by the iPhone 5 quite a few months back). They hold their value well.

However with import duty pending, we will send some money for her to get an alternative smartphone. My wife's idea for her mom.

Not just a problem common to the Philippines. we see it it in the UK too. People want the latest smart gadgets but ignore the basics, like insuring their house and its contents. Then when disaster strikes (such as a flood) they expect to be 'bailed out' (excuse the pun) saying that the government should pay to re-house them, claiming they were too poor to buy the insurance!

I did not get my first smartphone until last year and it cost just £40! And only just bought my fourth computer printer (with built-in scanner) in over 30 years (still waiting for it to arrive) for just £57.

I now have a redundant Epson Perfection 4870 photo scanner but that must surely be well-superseded by now!

Went with Plan B. Sent across some money for a Samsung smartphone from the cheaper end of their range. Done.

I would certainly go the Balikbayan box route, if only because for not so much more than the cost of the courier you can send a lot of other stuff.

We thought about that for the phone. But we wanted to get a phone for her with immediate effect. Also, we plan to send a Balikbayan box soon, now that we have located an LBC rep in the I of M but as its our first we thought we would leave higher cist items out this time around.

If the phone is wanted "immediately" then I would send money, and she can buy one at any of the many shops selling them.Keep in mind that younger Filipinos are very "tech - savvy". It may well be cheaper there than here, and there will be no compatibility issues. As you know, most phones sold in the Philippines are "dual SIM" so you can access both the Globe and the Smart networks depending on where you happen to be.

Also, in the Philippines, but not here, you can buy Chinese clones, which are just as good and a fraction of the price.